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Welcome to blog #2 for November, 2016

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The Word for today

“I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’
I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists!5 Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens
or speak with such arrogance.’”6 For no one on earth—from east or west,
or even from the wilderness—
should raise a defiant fist.[a]7 It is God alone who judges;
he decides who will rise and who will fall” (Psalm 75:4-7 NLT).

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Had enough of the Hillary and Donald show?

I have. It is now time to govern, not campaign. Therefore, after the following comments, we will lessen the political input in the blog from this point forward. I make no specific promises of absolutely none, but will refrain as much as possible and focus on issues that are relevant to Christians in general, and Apostolics in particular.

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He did it!

Against all odds, Donald J. Trump has been elected president of the USA! A few months ago, who would have given him a snowball’s chance in the Sahara? Not me. Someone who had never held public office, an outsider, whose only notoriety was to be a billionaire builder, has ascended to the highest office in America. I am not sure yet whether we Evangelicals who obviously put him over the top should be proud. Time will tell. But I trust he recognizes that fact.

As Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written.” No changing; no going back. The vote is in, the ballots were marked, and the die is cast. America chose Trump by 306 to 232 electoral votes. Some are saying it was God; others that it was the devil. Let’s just say it was the voters in the swing states.

Hillary’s and Sanders’ millennials can’t accept it, so they are rioting in the streets, emboldened by the likes of Harry Reid and the liberal media. Their numbers are swelled by the bused-in radicals, lousy looters, socialists and communists. They spout Marxist slogans, and carry signs that belie their true sentiments, which are not with America. Get over it, protesters, and let’s get on with the business of restoring America to the Republic our nation’s founders envisioned.

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Dear Liberal Progressives:

I’m noticing that a lot of you aren’t graciously accepting the fact that your candidate lost. In fact you seem to be posting even more hateful things about those of us who voted for Trump.
Some of you are apparently “triggered.” Because you are posting how “sick” you feel about the results.
How did this happen you ask?
You created “us” when you attacked our freedom of speech.
You created “us” when you attacked our right to bear arms.
You created “us” when you attacked our Christian beliefs.
You created “us” when you constantly referred to us as racists.
You created “us” when you constantly called us xenophobic.
You created “us” when you told us to get on board or get out of the way.
You created “us” when you forced us to buy health care and then financially penalized us for not participating.
You created “us” when you allowed our jobs to continue to leave our country.
You created “us” when you attacked our flag.
You created “us” when you confused women’s rights with feminism.
You created “us” when you began to emasculate men.
You created “us” when you decided to make our children soft.
You created “us” when you decided to vote for progressive ideals.
You created “us” when you attacked our way of life.
You created “us” when you decided to let our government get out of control.
“You” created “us” the silent majority.
And we became fed up and we pushed back and spoke up.
And we did it with ballots, not bullets.

Posted by Debbie Ferguson. Well spoken.

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Powerful words

Time always tells the truth.

“An unholy Church! It is of no use to the world, and of no esteem among men. Oh, it is an abomination, hell’s laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. And the larger the Church, the more influential, the worst nuisance does it become, when it becomes dead and unholy. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world, have been brought upon her by an unholy Church.” – Charles H. Spurgeon

“He is no fool who gives away what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” – Jim Eliot, missionary to Peru (Something very similar was stated by Matthew Henry in his commentaries.)

“The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.” –George Washington (1789)

“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.” – Ronald Reagan

Liberals and Hollywood elites must be Latinophobes. Ever notice liberals say they’re moving to Canada if Trump gets elected? Why don’t they move to Mexico or Guatamala? – Various sources

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The following was given to my wife, Roffie, by Sis. Mollie Thompson, missionary to Colombia, South America

Jesus—What A Name!

I have….

Sung it in worship,

Yelled it in revival,

Screamed it in danger,

Shouted it in victory,

Whispered it to the sinner, the sick and the dying,

Crooned it to my children,

Gasped it in pain,

Groaned it in travail,

Murmured it in despair,

Breathed it in panic,

Sobbed it in terror,

Moaned it in sorrow,

Muttered it in failure,

Whimpered it in self-loathing,

Whined it in failure,

Wailed it in real and imaginary affronts,

Wept it in repentance,

Laughed it in forgiveness,

Stammered it in astonishment,

Thought it when speech was prohibited and scoffing was the order of the day!

And in every language and tone of voice known to man, IT WORKS!!!

AMEN! (JRE)

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Conformed to His image?

I know the Bible says, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29 NLT). But sometimes we don’t feel like our lives resemble His very closely.

How did Jesus work His way through this earthly life so pristinely? Someone said He did it this way:

He was subject to certain people, even Joseph and His mother Mary. He was Lord of all, yet He humbled Himself to be obedient. Each of us needs someone in our lives to whom we are subject.

He was wed to a purpose: “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth” (Mark 1:38). His face was set like a flint toward Calvary and the redemption of mankind.

He loved people who were unlovable—the Gadarene madman, the self-righteous man, the women who had been gross sinners.

He suffered execution when He did not deserve it. How many of us are willing to die to self and pride when we have not been at fault?

He performed 37 marvelous miracles of all kinds—yet, He gave glory to His Father. If we had done all that, who would have received the glory?

Oh, to be conformed to His image!

(Found on sticky notes deep in my Bible. Source uncertain.)

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Are you a “country bumpkin”?

“If it is not [declared] unlawful for any persons to make some definite proclamation in regard to the truth of Scripture, there will arise countless errors. For every one will maltreat the Sacred Writings at his own sweet will. Country bumpkins!” – Huldrych Zwingli, quoting his opponents

Job’s Wife

“Job has lost his children, but his wife he has retained, for he needed not to be tried by losing her: he was proved [tested] sufficiently by having her. . . .Why, asks Chrysostom, did the devil leave him his wife? Because he thought her a good scourge, by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means.” – Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Job, pp. 71-72.

I am sure second opinions might be in order on this observation by Chrysostom, who remained a life-long bachelor.

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Bittersweet memories:

Did Someone hear?

Truth always “trumps” lies!

When the voters handed Hillary her pink slip.

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Give us a sense of humor, Lord,
Give us the grace to see a joke,
To get some humor out of life,
And pass it on to other folk.

Have a wonderful November—what’s left of it. Slice some turkey, not just the politicians.

JREnsey

Welcome to the October 2016 blog. Thanks for visiting.

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The Word for today

“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. 10 And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us” (II Corinthians 1:8-10).

May the Word give hope to some reader today!

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Did Someone Find the Doctrine of the Trinity In the Name of God? Why is God’s Name “Elohim” Plural in Genesis 1:1?

By Rabbi Tovia Singer

Question: Yesterday, a Christian business associate made a point that in the very first verse of Genesis G-d is referred to as “Elohim,” which is plural. She also said that it is a plural form of three (something I have never heard before). That, she concludes, is proof of the Trinity! Why is G-d’s name plural in this verse?

Answer:

The claim advanced by your business associate is one of the more well-known arguments used by missionaries to defend the doctrine of the Trinity, the most guarded and untenable creed of the Church. It would be difficult to imagine a doctrine more hostile to the uncompromising monotheism preached in the Jewish Scriptures than the Christian claim that there is a plurality within the divine nature of God. Yet, armed with little knowledge of the Hebrew language, many Trinitarians brazenly argue that the name of God, as it appears in the first verse in the Bible, “proves” there are three distinct Persons in the godhead.

More specifically, missionaries point to the plural form of the Hebrew name of God אֶלהִים, (Elohim), which appears frequently in the Torah, to bolster their claim that there is a complex unity in the godhead. They argue that the use of the Hebrew letters “ ים” (yud and mem, pronounced “im”), which is a plural suffix at the end of the word Elohim, provides ample evidence from Tanach that there is a plurality within the nature of God. Your business associate went out on an even more bizarre limb when she declared that this Hebrew syntax is somehow indicative of the “plural form of three.”

You can rest assured that the Hebrew tongue is a foreign language to your business associate, and that both of her contentions are erroneous. While her first assertion can be easily explained away by her lack of familiarity with the biblical language, her second point cannot. Her latter comment that the plural suffix in Elohim is indicative of “a plural form of three” is particularly preposterous, and….(Read the remainder of this very interesting article at http://outreachjudaism.org/trinity-genesis/

Disclaimer: I know nothing about the author of the above article other than what I see and read on the Internet. The sharing of this article should not be construed as an endorsement of him or his theological positions. He is a Jew and does not believe Jesus is the Messiah. However, his explanation of the plural Elohim in Genesis 1:1 in this article strengthens the position of God’s Oneness.

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Ghost writers in the sky*

In a Family Circus cartoon, 5-year old Dolly brings a Bible to her mother and asks, “Did God write the Bible Himself? Or did He have some Holy Ghost writers?”

Dolly, that was a very insightful question. Indeed, God has done some writing Himself when He inscribed the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. However, He conscripted some “holy men of God” (II Peter 1:21) to write the record of creation, the Law, the history of His people, poetry that teaches, and prophecies of things to come. He also inspired writers to provide the history of the ministry of Christ and the apostles, along with their letters of instructions to believers in the first century. The truths were from God; men provided the means to convey and preserve them.

So, yes, in a sense God did have some “ghost writers.” God is the Author of the Book but He used men to write the words. We have found that every record is factual and every promise is trustworthy.

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Darwin was right

By Tony Pearce

Darwin was right when he wrote: “To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection (evolution) seems absurd in the highest possible degree.”

Oxford biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins, who believes that Darwin’s theory of evolution has the answer to all natures complexities, is not daunted by this admission of his mentor. In his book, Climbing Mount Improbable, Dawkins agrees with Darwin that there are difficulties in believing in the evolution of the eye: An eye is made up of a large number of parts arranged in a very special way. The number of possible ways in which those parts could have been arranged comes to a stupefying large number. Moreover, of all the trillions of possible arrangements of the parts of an eye, only a tiny minority would see.

To answer this possible objection to the theory of evolution, Dawkins argues that it is not difﬁcult for rudimentary lens-like objects to come into existence spontaneously. Any old lump of halfway transparent jelly need only assume a curved shape (there are all sorts of reasons why it might), and it will immediately confer at least a slight improvement on a simple cup or pinhole. Lenses might have evolved in the ﬁrst place from a vitreous mass that ﬁlled the whole eye. According to calculations made by Swedish biologists, he says it would only take about 364,000 generations to evolve a good ﬁsh eye with a lens.

Even if you accept this unlikely scenario, it does not tell us how long it would take to evolve a good human eye or how these blind or half-blind creatures managed to stumble around for millions of years while they evolved their eyes [or how they escaped predators during that time. – JRE]. Nor does it tell us how something as wonderful and complex as the eye could have come together by chance, when all the evidence of the natural world is that left to themselves things become more random and disorganized, not more complex and developed (the Second Law of Thermodynamics).

“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them” (Proverbs 20:12).

Source: The Evolution Conspiracy: The Impact of Darwinism on the World and the Church

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Man deported five times keeps returning to assault women

Police arrested Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales in Austin for setting a woman on fire and sexually assaulting several others over a period of months.

He was here illegally and had been deported five times, only to walk back across the border again and again. Obama and Hillary say we have border security. What a joke, you say? It is not a joke to those he abused and tried to kill. The “Border Patrol Agents” (a misnomer?) have their hands tied in such cases. It is like fishing in special places: catch and release. Our officials in Washington say the immigration system is “broken” and needs fixing.

The first thing it needs is enforcing by a president with guts and a congress that is not sold out. There will be no border security without a physical restraint and someone in Washington with the courage to say, “Want to come here? Welcome, but you must come legally. Like other sovereign nations, we have immigration laws and they will be enforced.” Reckon there will ever be such a person in the White House?

Obama has authorized thousands of Syrian refugees to come to America where there is no real vetting process in place. Hillary Clinton has said she wants to allow several times that many to come. I also heard that over 858 illegals (later upped to over 1800) who were set to be deported because of involvement in immigration fraud and suspicion of national security concerns, were granted U.S. citizenship “by mistake.” Right. One of them was already hired into law enforcement, two others were given security clearance, and they were now able to sponsor other immigrants who want to come into the country. Are we totally nuts, or is it all part of the final months of the Obama administration’s secret acts?

Staying at home on November 8?

The other day a man told me that for the first time ever he was going to vote for a third party candidate. He liked neither of the two main candidates running for president. Is “liking” someone a prerequisite to vote in a presidential election? He should know that a vote for a third party will likely be a vote for Hillary Clinton. Everyone—even those who stay home—votes for somebody! Others say they just can’t bring themselves to vote for anyone this time. That is rather illogical. If we wait until someone comes along who believes exactly like we do about the military, the economy, the culture, our particular preferences about everything, we will probably be waiting a long time. The apostle Paul is not on the ballot this year.

Also, consider this:
Justice Scalia’s seat is vacant.
Justice Ginsberg is 82 years old
Justice Kennedy is 79 years old
Justice Breyer is 77 years old
Justice Thomas is 67 years old

The average age of a Supreme Court retirement or death occurs after 75. These are five vacancies that will likely come up over the next 4-8 years. The next president will have the power to potentially create a 7-2 Supreme Court skewed with his ideology. Think about a 7-2 liberal court. If the next President appoints five young justices, it will guarantee control of the Supreme Court for an entire generation. And 7-2 decisions will hold up much more over time than 5-4 decisions which are viewed as lacking in mandate.

Hillary has made it clear she will use the Supreme Court to go after the 2nd Amendment. She has literally said that the Supreme Court was wrong in its Heller decision stating that the Court should overturn and remove the individual right to keep and bear arms. Period. If Hillary Clinton wins and gets to make these appointments, you likely will never see another conservative victory at the Supreme Court level for the rest of your life. Ever.
Remember Romney? Three million conservatives who had voted for McCain did not cast a vote for Romney (for whatever reason) and the result was four additional years of Obama. Thanks, all you stay-at-homers!

AND ONE FINAL THOUGHT, Hillary’s already on the record as saying that Obama “would make a great Supreme Court Justice.” (USA Today) Now that is scary!

Source: Anonymous

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Let’s all say “diversity”!

We keep hearing about diversity. Everyone seemingly wants to play the game of who can be the most broadminded as though it is the ultimate virtue.

In our government’s insistence on diversity, the president has nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi, a Muslim, to serve as Federal Judge in the District of Columbia. Does anyone realize how impacting that decision could be on the future of our nation? These are “for life” appointments. We are already seeing the effect of Obama’s judicial appointees in the support of his social and political agendas. What the president wants, he gets by activist judges.

Is diversity on the federal bench bad? No, and yes. It matters not what color a person’s skin is. Who cares? What values does he embrace? What decisions might he be expected to hand down in the future? To whom might he be obligated? What is his vision for America? Those are the important questions, not what race or gender might be involved. Diversity will usually happen to some extent rather automatically. It did in the early church. Diversity is fine but it must not outstrip unity in the things that matter. Slogans notwithstanding, diversity is NOT our strength. The Bible teaches that our strength is in unity.

The real problem: diversity does not know where to stop. It roars past gender and skin tone and ethnicity. It gets into ideology and into theology. It morphs into multiculturalism and then into full-blown pluralism, all undergirded by political correctness. Any value—or no values—becomes equal to all others. In that crazy system no one is truly right because everything is relative. Globalization is in; nationalism is out. Sounds good to those who think George Soros ought to be president.

Eighty-eight former generals have raised their voices against the diversity presently being foisted on the military. Traditional American values have been thrown out the window of the Pentagon. The “America first” generals are being replaced with homosexuals and transgenders and those who think America needs to be taken to the whipping post. One general has described our military as “in shambles.” Iran takes our billions while harrassing our ships and planes, threatening to shoot them down. Response: virtual silence. Weak, feckless leadership is no threat to them. We have supplied them with the means to buy weapons that can take out our planes and ships, as well as backing off from keeping their country nuclear free.

On the surface, diversity sounds charitable and Christian-like, as only college professors can laud it. But where is it headed? The call for diversity in the culture bleeds over into the church. Diversity is welcome in the church when the Scriptures are not violated, when unity is not threatened, but diversity for diversity’s sake—for appearances—is extremely shortsighted and dangerous. When we make it open-ended, where might we be ten or twenty years down the road? To be in lock-step with cultural trends is no virtue in our times, and certainly is no justification for ignoring scriptural mandates.
What would Paul say? What did he say?

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Politician ignores biblical context

Vice President candidate Tim Kaine was praising “marriage equality,” a code-phrase for same-sex marriage, in his effort to position God on his side. “My church teaches me about a Creator, in the first chapter of Genesis, who surveys the entire world, including mankind, and said, ‘It is very good. It is very good.’ Pope Francis famously said, ‘Who am I to judge?’ And to that I want to add, who am I to challenge God for the beautiful diversity of the human family? I think we’re supposed to celebrate it, not challenge it.”

It is “very good”? He wasn’t talking about Adam’s sin, Mr. Kaine. In fact, he kicked Adam out of the Garden because he ate fruit from a forbidden tree. Do we think anyone gets by with sin because God is a great big Jolly Old Elf sitting somewhere in the heavens ignoring the grossest of sins? Sorry, but that is not the message of Genesis 1. You need to get your Bible and read that again. And it is certainly not the message of Calvary, Mr. Kaine. Better take another look at the cross.

And we should be “celebrating” what God condemns rather than challenging it??? I guess you never read I Corinthians 6:9,10: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (NASB). Or I John 2:15-17. Or…oh, well. I don’t suppose Mr. Kaine will be reading this, but perhaps someone else will for whom the Word will makes sense. “Let him that readeth understand…” (Mark 13:14).

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Hip surgery

Two patients limp into two different doctors’ offices with the same complaint:

Both have trouble walking and may require hip surgery.

Patient #One.

Is examined within the hour, is X-rayed the same day, and has a time booked for surgery the following week.

Patient #Two.

Sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, then waits 8 weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn’t reviewed for another week, and finally has his surgery scheduled for 6 months from then, pending the review board’s decision on his age and remaining value to society.

Why the different treatment for the two patients?

Patient #One is a golden retriever taken to a vet.

Patient #Two is a senior citizen on Obamacare.

If there is no change in government in November…we’ll all need to find a good vet before long.

–Anonymous

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More timely quotes:

Margaret Thatcher: “Socialists cry ‘Power to the People!’ and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over the people, power to the state!”

Fred Thompson: “This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I’m tired of people feeling like they’ve got to apologize for America!”

Walter Williams: “Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.”

Mike Rowe: “Of the three million available jobs today, less than 20% require a 4-year degree. We are lending money we don’t have to kids who can pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist. That’s nuts!”

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Generational overlap

Adam was still alive when Methusaleh and his son Lamech (Noah’s father) were born. Do you reckon they conversed? Perhaps he told Methusaleh, “Yeah, we had a nice place once, but my wife ate us out of house and home.”

Noah’s son Shem was still alive when Abraham was born. Abraham could have learned much of the history of the world from him. “Abe, let me tell you about a storm that came up one day.”

Both Queen Esther and the prophet Daniel were in the Babylonian exile, although Daniel’s experience was decades before her time. Doubtless his story was an inspiration to her.

Daniel and the Chinese philosopher Confucius were contemporaries. What would their conversation have sounded like?

Solomon and the Greek poet Homer lived in the same century. Both were prolific writers. They would have had much to discuss.

Who are your contemporaries that you should meet and share stories with?

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BooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

Book Review:

How To Teach Holiness From the Inside Out

by David A. Huston

RoshPinnah Publications, 2016; 24.95

This huge (8½” X 11″) 325-page book is billed as “An Apostolic Guide on the Progression from Holy Ghost to Holy Life.” It definitely lives up to its billing. Those of us who teach can always simply use the Bible for our material, but so many specific issues we deal with today are unnamed in the Bible, except in the context of principles. That is where this book shines. Pastor David Huston in Carlisle, PA has pulled the fundamental principles from the Bible and life itself to shape the way we can bring ourselves into compliance with God’s will.

He rightly begins with the heart. Our inner man must be humbled to believe and obey. Otherwise, holiness is nothing more than a disciplining of the flesh. The author aids the teacher by showing the importance of leadership in guiding a group into a life of holiness. He boldly walks through the Meaning, the Purpose, the Pursuit, the Cost, and the Motivation for holiness. The principles of Identity, Love, Authority, Modesty, and Integrity are gleaned for wisdom in conveying the beauty of holiness.

The author adds a helpful section of questions and answers dealing with specific issues that brings the principles into practical application. He skillfully meshes external appearances with internal qualities.

The author also published a companion volume of 250 pages for the laity. The big book is distilled for the common man in the pews to have as the lessons are taught. It is called Jesus Bought A House: A Believers’ Guide to the Principles of Holiness. The price is 14.95. Both books can be purchased for $30.

You won’t be without solid teaching material on holiness for a long time. This is an investment that will pay dividends in the form of souls eternally saved.

Order from David Huston by email (DAHuston@aol.com) or call 717-580-0819. Both books for only $30.

SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES: Merging Truth, Texts and Translations

By J. R. Ensey

A number of years ago, I embarked on a journey to learn more about the actual text of the Bible. I wanted to know how it came to us in its present form. The research took me to libraries (both here and abroad), the Internet, discussions with textual scholars, and the reading of many books (a weariness of the flesh), and earnest prayer. I wanted to know the truth.

The shallow claim of those who insist that only one 400-year old English translation—done with pre-set biased rules, few resources, by men who did not know the New Testament was written in Koine rather than classical Greek—should be viewed as “theonlytrue Bible” demands a response. The attempt to find truth behind the manuscripts, the texts and translations seemed a worthy objective. Searching the Scriptures: Merging Truth, Texts and Translations is the result of that effort. It puts the early English Bibles, including the KJV, in perspective where they can be evaluated with contemporary translations by the sciences of papyrology, textual analysis, and linguistics. No doctrines are lost and none are created in the process of textual criticism.

If you have questions about the ancient manuscripts, the Greek texts, the differences in the Textus Receptus, the Majority Text, the Critical Text, or in the translations available today, you will probably find some help here. What about the words or phrases in some translations that are not there in the medieval versions or vice versa? There are some answers in this book.

Includes charts, comparisons of Bible translations, and other addenda that will prove helpful in the study of the Scriptures.

Apostolics, of all people, have no need to fear truth. To do so casts a shadow of doubt on the Holy Scriptures. The more one learns about the Bible, the more he respects it and trusts it. – JRE

Well-tuned toons

Hillary Clinton recently tried to explain her email affair by saying, “So I may have short-circuited it and for that, I will, you know, try to clarify.” We’ve come a long way from the integrity of President George Washington.

The Last Shots

Sorry, but I don’t listen to anti-gun lectures from people who think it’s OK to kill a baby.

It takes a special kind of lunatic to think importing welfare recipients who want to kill us is a good idea.

6’5″ 250-pound guy wearing lipstick and a bow in his long blonde hair to girl’s high school basketball coach: “The ACC doesn’t mind me using your locker room, but for some reason they don’t want me playing on your team.” (See: ACC pulls games out of North Carolina over transgender bathroom bill.)

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Personal

*Please forgive the pun. Only those over 50 will remember the song, “Ghost Riders in the Sky.”

Don’t miss next month’s blog! It will focus on the historic November 8 election of a U.S. President.

JREnsey

Welcome to the blog for September, 2016—the ninth month named for the number seven.

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The Word for today

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land where there is no water.2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory.3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you!4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast.
I will praise you with songs of joy.

Psalm 63:1-5

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Why is the ninth month of the year named for the number seven?

For all you detail addicts, here is a fix: September (from Latin septem, “seven”) was originally the seventh of ten months on the oldest known Roman calendar, with March (Latin Martius) the first month of the year until perhaps as late as 153 BC. After the calendar reform that added January and February to the beginning of the year, September became the ninth month, but retained its name. It had 29 days until the Julian reform, which added a day. (Wiki)

Got that?

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For Labor Day

Labor or Service?

“Six days thou shalt labour and do all thy work” (Deuteronomy 5:13). The term “labor” to many seems to connote drudgery or routine, repetitive, demeaning toil. As used here in the fourth of God’s Ten Commandments, however, the Hebrew word abad means rather to “serve” and is so translated 214 times in the King James. Only one other time is it translated “labor,” and that is in the ﬁrst rendering of the commandments (Exodus 20:9). Thus, the command could well be read: “Six days shalt thou serve. . . .” Futhermore, the word for “work” (Hebrew melakah) does not denote servile labor but “deputyship” or “stewardship.”

The one whom we are to serve or act as deputy for, of course, is God Himself when we do our work. In the ultimate and very real sense, the Lord is our employer, and we serve Him, not man. Therefore, “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). Every honest occupation, if carried out for the Lord’s sake and to His glory, is “divine service,” and every Christian who holds this perspective on his or her work (be it preaching, or bookkeeping, or homemaking, or whatever) is in the Christian ministry—for “ministry” simply means “service.”

Note also that God has ordained not a four-day or ﬁve-day workweek: “Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy Work,” He says, thus commemorating the six days in which He worked in the beginning, “for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth” (Exodus 31:17).

I’ve been thinking…

Some folks get bent out of shape because they don’t “get their healing” every time they feel a pain or their blood pressure rises. They usually blame a lack of faith, and some indict God for lacking compassion. Still others blame whomever they had asked to pray. If we were healed every time at the first sign of a problem, we would probably mistreat our bodies and selfishly violate this earthly temple in which we live. Why not?

Think about the situation this way. If Jesus fed the people all the time with loaves and fishes, they wouldn’t have to build boats, make nets or rods and go fishing, or pound grain to make flour and bread. No more cooking and setting food out for the family…just follow Me. If He daily kept us from the heat of the sun and sheltered us from the rain, we wouldn’t have to strive to provide those protections. If He freely handed us all the clothing we needed without our effort, and every other need was bountifully supplied without our involvement, what kind of persons would we become?

God is so wise!

(Note: the accompanying photo is not me. I don’t have that much hair.)

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In case you don’t have this picture

While visiting the Creation Evidence Museum near Glen Rose, Texas, I saw this stone, which once was mud, containing the Cretaceous footprint of a man overlaid with that of a dinosaur. This strongly suggests (I refrain from saying “proves”) that the two co-existed. You may have seen this photo reproduced elsewhere, but in case you don’t have it, here it is. I just hope the man wasn’t being chased by the dinosaur. If so, he was ahead at this point. I trust he was able to get away.

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Guess who’s dropping by for dinner

More reasons women outlive men:

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Multiculturalism: Fact or Threat?

By Dinesh D’Souza

Research Fellow, Hoover Institution

The following is an abridged version of Mr. D’Souza’s speech at a Hillsdale College seminar in Boise, Idaho.

There has been a remarkable demographic shift that has changed the complexion of American society over the last 40 years. One reason for this change is the fact that most immigrants today come from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, rather than from Europe. A second contributing factor is birthrates: those of non-white minorities are substantially higher than that of whites. Taken together, these have led to what some have called the “browning of America.” In this sense, we can speak of multiculturalism as a fact. But it is important to distinguish this fact from the ideology that goes by the same name. The ideology of multiculturalism demands the transformation of America’s educational and political institutions in response to the new demographic reality. This ideology of multiculturalism, unlike the fact of multiculturalism, poses a threat to….(please continue reading this important article, click here)…

Keeping our educational institutions on track

Bobby Killmon, Dean of Theology at IBC, in his reference to Robert Bork’s classic work, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, pointed out in a recent article in Perspectives magazine that if you want to change a movement’s core beliefs, you must start “the long march through the institutions.”

Truer words were never spoken. History confirms the fact. This is why we must assure our fellowship that every instructor in our endorsed colleges and seminary are proven to be—not merely assumed to be—totally dedicated to the apostolic message, both the Bible part and the living part. If we do not pay attention to who is assigned to stand before our students in the classroom, depending only on a sheepskin on a wall, letters behind a name, or who they might be kin to, we could find that our youth and aspiring ministers are slowly being moved away from the absoluteness of our core beliefs.

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Judeo-Christian evidence still in Washington

As you walk up the steps of the Supreme Court building, you see on its façade a carving of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on them. Right above where the judges sit is a display of the Ten Commandments. There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the federal buildings and monuments in Washington.

James Madison, the fourth president and known as The Father of our Constitution” made the following statement: “We have staked the whole of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” The first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said, “Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers.”

The patriot and a founding father, Patrick Henry said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Fifty-two of the founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.

Since 1777, every session of Congress has begun with prayer by a paid minister. An engraving of Moses graces the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. Our coins have “In God we trust” engraved on them. Our Pledge of Allegiance has “under God” in it.

How, then, have we reached a point where everything we have done for 240 years is suddenly wrong and unconstitutional? And how long will those evidences last under the next president?

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Every entity must have a capable leader

So much depends on leadership:

What ship ever sailed without a helmsman? Somebody must steer!

Where would Israel have been without Moses?

Or the impassioned warriors in Saul’s kingdom without David?

Or the apostles without Christ?

Or the cause of missionary evangelism without Paul?

Or the American colonists without Washington?

Or the Bolshevlks without Lenin?

Or the Cubans without Castro?

There must be a catalyst—someone who senses the need, who knows where he is going, who sees what others do not see. Anyone can see an axe head sinking, but only the Elishas can “see” it floating. Anyone can see the enemy surrounding us, but we need someone who can see the invisible fiery chariots on our side.

Success or failure of businesses, organizations, and churches often depend on the attitudes and abilities of one person who knows how to make things happen. Are YOU that person?

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In case you didn’t know

The combined weight of all ants on the earth is about the same as the combined weight of all humans.

The possible moves in a chess game are virtually infinite.

One day’s breathing in Mumbai, India is equivalent to smoking two and one half packs of cigarettes.

The entire population of earth could fit inside Texas, and it would still be less crowded than New York City.

Maudie Hopkins was the last known widow of a Civil War veteran. She died in 2008.

Before there were clocks, there were candle clocks that burned a set amount of hours. If you wanted a reminder or alarm, you pushed a nail at the desired time length in the candle and when it melted to that point, the nail would fall and clank on the metal holder, alerting you.

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Great men are not always wise

You can read this title in Job 32:9, but you can also see it played out in the strange statements of elder statesmen like ex-president Jimmy Carter. Last year he made the following statement quoted by religionnews.com 7/18/15: “I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else. I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage. That’s just my own personal opinion.”

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Beware: the medicine man cometh

Before you get strung out on some pill a doctor suggested might be “right for you,” or invest your hard earned money in vitamins and supplements, read the September issue of Consumer Reports on medication and supplements. They are generally trusted and evidently objective. Their articles on prescription drugs and over-the-counter supplements are quite eye opening. Your health is on the line as well as your bank account.

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Did God do that?

When someone has special talents and abilities, it is not uncommon for others to say of them, “God gave them that talent so they could use it as they are doing. Otherwise they wouldn’t have it.” Really?

Is it true that God gives unsaved godless persons special abilities to do what they do? Did God give extraordinary leadership skills to Hannibal, Alexander, and Napoleon? Did God specifically give inventive skills to Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander G. Bell, and Thomas Edison? Did God specifically give astronomical and mathematical genius to Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking? Did He specifically choose Dr. Denton Cooley, Dr. Michael DeBakey, and James H. “Red” Duke to have exceptional skills as heart surgeons? Were Demosthenes, Cicero, Adolph Hitler, and Winston Churchill given gifts of oratory by God to be used by them as they were?

Are we humans mere dancing dolls on a string operated from above? I think not. Can God use certain skills and abilities for His glory? Of course. Did He ever give certain gifts to be used for His glory? Likely. But perhaps Solomon was an anomaly. Ordinarily, however, men continue to apply particular naturally occurring skills to tasks that bring attention to themselves. We are not obligated to either credit or blame God for men doing what occurs instinctively and spontaneously. To do so could open us up to deception through human reasoning.

People have varying personalities and levels of ambition. Opportunity and timing play a role. Henry Hartman once said, “Success comes when preparation meets opportunity.” May I add—when vision and motivation encounter need, exploits occur. Rather than wait to try to figure out what God specifically gave you to work with, do what your hands find to do. That was Solomon’s advice: “Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place where you will eventually go” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

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The basics of textual criticism

Still puzzled about New Testament Greek, biblical manuscripts, and Bible versions? Still wondering why some Bibles read a little differently from others? I highly recommend that you take a little time to listen to someone who is probably more knowledgeable about these matters than anyone living today, Dr. Daniel Wallace. You will not regret taking the time to listen to a series of brief discussions about the Bible manuscripts. You can find them here… https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/basics-new-testament-textual/id446655163?mt=10

BooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

eBooks

As a generic term, an electronic book (or e-book) is a book published in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as “an electronic version of a printed book”. Many e-books exist without a printed equivalent. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-reader devices. However, almost any sophisticated computer device from the 2010s that features a controllable viewing screen can also be used to read e-books, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Having worked intimately with Jerry Ensey over several years providing detailed edits on various versions of the manuscript of this book, I feel qualified to offer comment on this latest of his many quality books, Searching the Scriptures. The author has given us a treasure of research and valuable information in this remarkable volume. Any honest student of the Scriptures is interested in truth—and this work paints the clear picture that the Bible we hold in our hands is the veritable Word of God.

In English-speaking countries we hold translations of the Scriptures that are so breathtakingly true to the original writings of Moses, the prophets, the Apostles and those close contemporaries such as Luke and Mark who penned the holy Writ—that we can place our trust in that wonderful Book of books we call the Bible. This latest volume from the author brings this salient fact out vividly—and every student of the Word should be thankful.

I should warn that this book is not a “casual read!” It will challenge you to think, and to look at the large assemblage of factual evidence presented in its pages. While he deals with what has been a controversial subject within the Apostolic movement—that of the acerbic debate of… (Continue reading this review…click here).

Searching the Scriptures is just off the press! 435 pages of helpful information about the Bible. Only 19.95. Great for pastors, students, and laymen alike. Order from advanceministries.org/store or simply call 936-537-0250…today!

Obama wants Catholic institutions to provide condoms and abortions. Does this mean he will force Muslims to serve bacon and alcohol?

Imagine the outcry if Christians beheaded 21 Muslims.

Bernie and Hillary’s economy: Buy one burger for the price of two and receive a second burger absolutely free!

There have been over 800 killings in Chicago with guns this year. How many were done by NRA members? Right…zip! Liberals think conservatives are violent because they own guns. When was the last time you saw conservatives block a freeway, turn over cop cars, riot, loot, throw Molotov cocktails and burn buildings?

In 1986 while Reagan was president, Libya killed some Americans. He bombed their leader’s house, and they were silent for 25 years. Then someone apologized.

Have a blessed September!

JREnsey

Welcome to the blog for August, 2016—the month honoring Caesar Augustus, who tried to kill Jesus. The heat this month is trying to kill me too.

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The Word for today

“Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things, who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” (Psalm 12:1-4 NASB).

This passage seemed appropriate to coincide with the political conventions.

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Is election to church leadership a mandate for social change?

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has elected a co-moderator, making the top leadership of the denomination totally female, for its 222nd General Assembly who believes members of the denomination are just as evil as Orlando shooter Omar Mateen who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.

In a blog written within hours of the Orlando nightclub shooting in which Mateen killed 49 people, the Rev. Denise Anderson—a pastor from National Capital Presbytery who is serving alongside the Rev. Jan Edmiston, a presbytery executive from Chicago as a co-moderator for the PCUSA’s annual assembly—argues that “many in our own ranks aren’t too idealistically different from this gunman.”

“Much of this [homelessness, human trafficking, crime, drug use and suicide among LGBTQ youth] can be attributed to religious teaching,” Anderson claims. “A pastor who counseled parents to turn their backs on their gay son, or submit their lesbian daughter to conversion therapy. Flippant comments about ‘sissies’ thrown carelessly about from the pulpit.

“Relegation of gay men to the choir loft (entertain us!), but kept from the trustee board. Scapegoating same-sex couples as the purveyors of moral erosion. That’s our doing. That’s our assault weapon.”

Anderson further asserted the American Church “is in the same business” as the terrorist Mateen, but is “simply not as efficient as he was.”

As part of the opening day of PCUSA’s 222nd General Assembly held recently in Portland, Oregon, delegates overwhelmingly elected Anderson and Edmiston as co-moderators.

The United Methodist Church has followed suit and elected Karen Oliveto as the Western Jurisdiction bishop. You guessed it—she is a professed lesbian. She is also pastor of the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church of San Francisco.

What’s that twisting sound in John Wesley’s grave?

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Turn off A/Cs and refrigerators!

According to Sec’y of State John Kerry, climate change and global warming may be more dangerous than ISIS and international terrorism.

“It’s hard for some people to grasp it, but what you are doing here right now is of equal importance, because it has the ability literally to save life on this planet,” Kerry recently told the conference of parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a global treaty to end the use of many chlorofluorocarbons from aerosols and refrigerants that deplete the ozone layer.

Are we to assume that all Democrats and other nations are now in the process of turning off their A/Cs and cooling their milk and perishables in a nearby creek or well, as we did when I was a child?

One Twitter response suggested that Kerry took waaaaay too much LSD in the 70s and his brain may be fried.

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A prophecy

Christianity adherents, particularly those who are not in step with the leftist agenda, are about to be blamed with virtually everything negative that is happening in America.

You may have noticed the many websites laying the Orlando shooting squarely on the doorstep of conservative Christians that do not approve of the LGBTQ lifestyle, as though outspoken Christians have prompted ISIS and other Muslim groups to commit such atrocities.

The coming persecution of Christians will feature blame placed on Christians from everything from climate change, tornadoes, floods, dope rings, murders in Chicago, the collapse of the stock market, and perhaps even 9/11 and the Hindenberg disaster.

The same was true in the Apostolic Age. Christians were blamed with the downfall of paganism and the disuse of their temples, or physical disasters in many cities—Carthage, Alexandria, and others—and were accused by the emperor of setting the fire that burned Rome in July of AD 64.

Get ready…you will be cited as the cause of almost all negative situations in America. What goes around comes around.

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VP for Muslims?

Former Governor Time Kaine of Virginia has been chosen as Hillary Clinton’s vice president. Brieitbart.com reports that while governor he appointed a Muslim Brotherhood front leader to head the state’s commission on immigration and integration. In a court filing, federal prosecutors said the Muslim American Society “was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” Kaine called opposition to this appointment “bigotry.” Kaine also spoke at a dinner honoring a Muslim Brotherhood terror suspect, as well as receiving campaign donations from Islamist groups and individual Muslims.

As U.S. Senator from Virginia, he serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What are we to expect should he become the vice president? Is it a valid assumption that Muslims will adopt American values and laws if we freely open our borders to them? Will they fall in love with American liberty and opportunity and be loyal U.S. citizens? Or will this be viewed as a weakness to be exploited as they have done in Europe?

You might be interested in the Judicial Watch special report titled U.S. Government Purges of Law Enforcement Training Material Deemed “Offensive” To Muslims. What else is going on behind the scenes that we know nothing about?

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What is “the truth”?

I have heard thousands of Apostolics testify about their experience with “the truth”—“I found the truth…I came into the truth…I obeyed the truth…I have been in the truth 20 years…etc.” What do they mean by “the truth”?

No one breaks into their testimony to explain the details. Doubtless, it leaves some hearers a little mystified.

I will venture to say that what is meant is that they have come to the assurance that God exists, that He is eternally one single Spirit, that He is the creator of all things, that He manifested Himself as our Savior, Jesus Christ, that Jesus experienced death at Calvary in our place, that we appropriate His salvation by repenting of our sins and being baptized in His name, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit completes the new birth, that a lifestyle separated from the world pleases God, and that our hope is eternal life with the Lord in Heaven.

While that limited list does not include all Bible truths, it may serve to explain to others what Apostolic Pentecostals generally mean when they speak of “the truth.”

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Moral: Don’t steal a car you are not familiar with!

The proud owner of a magnificently restored 1956 Chevrolet convertible, wrote to say he had returned the car to perfection over the last few years, posted this story.

On a very warm summer afternoon he decided to take his car to town. It needed gas, as the gauge was practically on empty, but he wanted ice cream, so he headed first to his favorite ice cream shop.

He had trouble finding a parking space and had to park the car down a side street. He noticed a group of young guys standing around smoking cigarettes and eyeing his car rather covetously. He was a bit uneasy leaving it there, but people often take interest in such an old and well-preserved car, so he went off to enjoy his ice cream.

The line at the ice cream shop was long and it took him quite a while to return to his car. When he did, his worst fears were realized… his car was gone.

He called the police and reported the theft and then went back and bought a quart of pistachio ice cream. About ten minutes later the police called him to say they had found the car abandoned near a gas station a few miles out of town.

It was unharmed and he was relieved. It seems just before he called, the police had received a call from a young woman who was an employee at a self-service gas station. She told them that three young men had driven in with this beautiful old convertible. One of them came to the window and prepaid for 20 dollars worth of gas.

Then all three of them walked around the car, looking at it carefully, and then just walked away without filling the tank.

The question is, why would anybody steal a car, pay for gas that they never pumped, and then abandon the car later and walk away?

Pope: Church should apologize

“I think the church must not only apologize…to a gay person it offended, but we must apologize to the poor, to women who have been exploited, to children forced into labor, apologize for having blessed so many weapons” and for having failed to assist families who faced divorces or experienced other problems.

Do you agree? What will the pope apologize for next? His latest statement: “We should not identify Islam with terror.” Let’s see…Baptists? Mormons? Catholics? Buddhists? Which religion does he feel is connected to these terror massacres?

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For gay Catholics only

The Philadelphia Archbishop says gay Catholics should abstain from sex to receive communion. The Philly mayor blasted the decree as “not Christian.” Let’s see…what would be the mayor’s concept of “Christian” behavior?

The new guidelines reiterate Catholic teaching that those in relationships outside the sacrament of marriage—including those in same-sex relationships, the divorced, civilly remarried and unmarried couples living together—should abstain from sex in order to receive communion. The Catholic Church has long held that only those living according to church teaching are eligible to receive the sacraments, including the Eucharist.

“This is a hard teaching for many, but anything less misleads people about the nature of the Eucharist and the Church,” the guidelines state.

Just thought you’d like to know.

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Otherwise, how is your day going?

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The “thought police” are on duty!

During an end-of-the-year class party at a New Jersey elementary school, a 9-year-old boy said something about brownies and was subsequently questioned by a police officer who was called by the school to investigate an incident of racism. It was another student that accused the boy of saying something “racist,” but the boy’s mother said he was talking about “snacks, not skin color,” according to Philly.com. “He said they were talking about brownies. Who exactly did he offend?” the mother, Stacy dos Santos, asked incredulously.

Can’t nine-year old boys say they like brownies? Knock it off, TP!

How can we ever thank the present administration for taking us toward the abyss of a police state where suspicion, hate and division rule.

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BooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

Before You Say “I Do”

by JREnsey

No one in your church should get married before asking themselves these twenty-five very important questions. This book has helped countless couples circumvent troublesome areas in their courtship and marriage. A wedding planner and other extras are included in the book.

AM Price $4.95

A Hill To Die On

JR Ensey
Is truth worth dying for? We all know the time is coming when we must take a stand. This book suggests that there are some things worth risking our reputations, our resources, and even our lives for. Six months ago we would never have thought we would be where we are today as a nation. The Christian faith is rapidly being dismembered and deconstructed to make way for Islam. The rush of endtime prophecy fulfillment should stiffen the backbone of every Christian and make us realize there will be a price to pay for our faith. The nine chapters of the book include:

– A Hill To Die On
– Truth in an Age of Deception
– Unity in an Age of Division
– Righteousness in an Age of Hedonism
– The Church in an Age of Spirituality
– Absolutes in an Age of Relativism
– God and Government
– Is American Christianity Returning to the Social Gospel?
– Our Finest Hour

For Seniors Only

I am a Seenager (senior teenager). I have everything I wanted as a teenager, only 60 years later. I don’t have to go to school or work. I get an allowance every month. I have my own pad. I don’t have a curfew. I have a driver’s license and my own car. The folks I hang around with are not promiscuous and don’t smoke dope. And I don’t have acne. LIFE IS GREAT!

However, I don’t understand how I can remember every word of a song from 1964, but I can’t remember why I just walked into the kitchen. And why are other people my age so much older than me?

Source: Unknown

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Mysteries of the Codex Bezae

One of the notable uncial manuscripts of the New Testament containing the Gospels and Acts is the Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, so named since it once resided in the hands of Theodore Beza, successor to John Calvin in Geneva. In 1581 Beza gifted it to Cambridge University where it is on display today. Almost everyone who writes about biblical texts or textual criticism is familiar to some extent with the fifth major uncial in the line of New Testament manuscripts. Its official designation on the list of manuscripts is Dea or 05. (The superscripted e and a signify that the manuscript contains the Gospels, Acts and some portion of the General Epistles.)

It is notable because it is old, dated by most scholars to the fifth or sixth century. It is also important due to its text-type, being the primary representative of the Western family of text-types. Bezae is also the oldest extant bi-lingual manuscript of the Bible, with the Greek text on the left hand page and Latin on the facing page. The mysteries of this codex surround the (continue reading this article, click here)…

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Not really a laughing matter

Don’t burn my flag! (Amen. You go, girl!)

Martha vs. Hillary

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Target Stores haven’t learned their lesson

A transgender man was arrested in a Target store dressing room taking pictures of a woman changing clothes. Dear Target: You can’t say you were not warned.

A transgender Idaho Falls woman was arrested on one count of felony voyeurism for a report that she took pictures of another woman changing clothes in a dressing room in a Target store in Ammon, Idaho.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the store after a woman reported that someone was taking pictures of her while she was trying on clothes inside a dressing room. The victim noticed the suspect reaching over the wall with a cellphone taking pictures and confronted her, prompting the suspect to flee the store on foot.

Welcome to the July blog! Grab a glass of iced tea and take a few minutes to cool your heels while you read.

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The Word for today

“Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—21 may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen” (Hebrews 13:20,21 NLT).

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Why do good people endure tragedy?

We often seek unknowable answers to hypothetical questions, particularly when tragedy strikes. Someone who found comfort in the following verses from Isaiah 57:1,2 shared them with me.

“The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”

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Never forget

We have buried more than 104,000 Americans in cemeteries in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, who never made it back from the wars we fought to save those countries from Nazi aggression. In liberating them, we asked for no reward, took no land, nor did we confiscate the spoils. We only asked for space to bury our dead, and afterward poured money from hard-working Americans into their coffers to help them rebuild their countries. It is perplexing how free they are with their criticism of our generosity.
On Memorial Day did you stop and think about the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of our sons and daughters who did not come back? May we never forget. Others have; we cannot.

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Insurance against divorce

A new study has found that women with between zero and one sexual partner are the least likely to divorce later on, with women who had 10 or more partners emerging as the most likely to see their marriages end, according to the Institute for Family Studies.

Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth that was collected in 2002, 2006-2010 and 2011-2013, researchers observed these trends, with the potential ties emerging between the total number of sexual partners and matrimonial dissolutions.

“Earlier research found that having multiple sex partners prior to marriage could lead to less happy marriages, and often increased the odds of divorce,” according to Professor Nicholas Wolfinger wrote in a blog post that announced the analysis. “But sexual attitudes and behaviors continue to change in America, and some of the strongest predictors of divorce in years gone by no longer matter as much as they once did.”

Celibacy until marriage is still God’s plan and some slow learners are just now finding out—the hard way.

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More reasons to believe the Bible

Archaeology has confirmed the existence of at least fifty people mentioned in the Bible. When skeptics argue that the Bible is merely a book of mythological figures, you can point to this list. If you are not a subscriber to Biblical Archaeology Review and its sister online publication, Bible History Daily, I urge you to check them out. Interesting, factual, and inspiring are adjectives that come to mind.

If you want to see archaeological confirmation of fifty biblical figures, click on:

How do you settle a presidential election when the vote is too close to call?

With an ice fishing contest, of course!

After the first round of votes were counted, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were deadlocked.

Instead of going through a recount, the two agreed to a week-long ice fishing contest to settle the election. Whoever caught the most fish at the end of the week would be the President.

The candidates decided a remote frozen lake in northern Wisconsin would be the ideal place. No observers on the fishing grounds, but both candidates would need to have their catches verified and counted each night at 5pm.

After Day 1, Trump returned with a total of 10 fish, Hillary came back with nothing.

Day 2 finished, and Trump caught another 20 fish, but Hillary once again came back with nothing!

That night, Hillary and her cronies got together and accused Trump of being a “low-life, cheatin’ trickster.” Instead of fishing on Day 3, they were just going to follow Trump to spy on him and figure out how he was cheating.

Day 3 finished up and Trump had an incredible day, adding 50 fish to his total!

That night, Hillary and her democrat buddies got together for the full report on how Donald was cheating. Hillary stood up to give her report and said, “You are not going to believe this, he’s cutting holes in the ice!”

And that, my friends, tells you about all you need to know.

– Anonymous, of course.

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Someone sent this question…

If I shoot a buck, but I only have a doe tag, can I claim that the buck wasn’t really a buck? I mean…maybe he’d always wanted to be a doe, but with no choice of his own, he was born with the physical attributes of a male.
And yet…on the inside he’d always known he was truly a female.
I’m just wondering if the game warden will buy it, because the White House and the courts have.

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Education or “re-education”?

The Philadelphia School District will add two Muslim holidays to its calendar and the city will create a task force to study doing the same for the city’s calendar, officials announced Tuesday.

Then this: High school says no to honor student. From the university level on down, students are being taught that mediocre is OK. If you excel, keep quiet about it. Everybody is a winner…right?! And not only that, those on the left (the media, school officials, and politicians) want people to have “pride” in all sorts of bizarre behaviors, but we are not allowed to recognize accomplishment. Some high schools have decided that students won’t be recognized at graduation for being in the National Honor Society.

Wayne State University has dropped math as a requirement and installed a class on Diversity, evidently feeling that gender identity issues were much more relevant and essential for our time.

Have our educators gone completely berzerk? Is falling in line with the government’s social engineering agenda turning our schools into re-education camps?

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Burning for Bernie

Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster.

While throngs of young people are cheering loudly for avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, socialism has turned oil-rich Venezuela into a place where there are shortages of everything from toilet paper to beer, where electricity keeps shutting down, and where there are long lines of people hoping to get food, people complaining that they cannot feed their families. (The Houston Chronicle reported riots in Venezuela (6/20) with citizens cleaning out grocery stores because of hunger.)

With national income going down, and prices going up under triple-digit inflation in Venezuela, these complaints are by no means frivolous. But it is doubtful if the young people cheering for Bernie Sanders have even heard of such things, whether in Venezuela or in other countries around the world that have turned their economies over to politicians and bureaucrats to run.

When you hear code words like “income inequality” you know they are pushing for socialism. In most socialistic countries, income inequality is magnified with only the very rich and the very poor.

Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. The masses of immigrants and many millennials have no clue about what made America great and strong. They are patsies for the Bernie Sanders of the world. Will Hillary and Bernie types in Washington we are apt to flush away 300 years of progress and return to subsistence farming (in our backyards) to survive.

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Can’t win for losing

I exercised my tummy fat away—it’s behind me now.

Don’t marry a tennis player. Love means nothing to them.

Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late. Remember: the second mouse gets the cheese.

If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

Always read a book that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

A woman boarded a plane to Chicago. She was in the economy class, but after takeoff, she saw an empty seat in first class and moved up there. An attendant saw her and said, “Excuse me, ma’am. but you have a ticket for economy class, not first. You cannot stay here.” The blonde replied “I can and I will.” The attendant told the copilot, who came and talked to the woman. “Ma’am we really can’t have you staying in this seat, your ticket is for economy class.” “You can’t make me move.” The copilot told the captain, who tried to talk her out of the seat, but it still didn’t work. Finally, a man who had heard what had been going on told the attendant to let him have a go at getting the woman out of the seat because he was married to a blonde, so he knew how to deal with her. After a quick chat with her, she moved. The shocked attendant asked him how he did it. The man replied, “I told her first class was going to Detroit.”

A little balance:

Bubba and Ray were standing by a ﬂagpole, looking up. A woman walked by and asked what they were doing. “We’re supposed to ﬁnd the height of the ﬂagpole,” said Bubba, “but we don’t have a ladder.”

The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a few bolts, and laid the pole down. Then she took a tape measure from her pocket, took a measurement, announced “eighteen feet, six inches,” and walked away.

Ray shook his head and laughed.

“Ain’t that just like a woman? We ask for the height, and she gives us the

length!”

Forgive me my folly.

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New Book

Searching the Scriptures: Merging Truth, Texts and Translations

By J. R. Ensey

440 pages; paper; 19.95 + p/h

A number of years ago, I embarked on a journey to learn more about the actual text of the Bible. I wanted to know how it came to us in the present form. The research took me to libraries (both here and abroad), the Internet, discussions with textual scholars, and the reading of many books (a weariness of the flesh), and earnest prayer. I wanted to know the truth.

The shallow claim of those who insist that only one 400-year old English translation—done with pre-set biased rules, few resources, by men who did not know the New Testament was written in Koine rather than classical Greek—should be viewed as “the Bible” demands a response. The attempt to find truth behind the manuscripts, the texts and translations seemed a worthy objective. Searching the Scriptures: Merging Truth, Texts and Translations is the result of that effort. It puts the early English Bibles, including the KJV, in perspective where they can be evaluated with contemporary translations by the sciences of papyrology, textual analysis, and linguistics. No doctrines are lost in the process and none are created in Searching the Scriptures.

If you have questions about the ancient manuscripts, the Greek texts, the differences in the Textus Receptus, the Majority Text, the Critical Text, or in the translations available today, you will probably find some help here. What about the words or phrases in some translations that are not there in the medieval versions or vice versa? You will find some answers in this book.

Includes charts, comparisons of Bible translations, and other addenda that is helpful in the study of the Scriptures.

Apostolics, of all people, have no need to fear truth. To do so casts a shadow of doubt on the Holy Scriptures. The more one learns about the Bible, the more he respects it and trusts it.

Worth a thousand words

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The Last Shots

Whoever said, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns,” must have seen into the future. Those states and cities that have the strictest laws and regulations are keeping the funeral homes in business. Is it that the “progressives” and the bleeding heart liberals can’t see this or do they have another agenda for America?

Oh, you might have missed this: Obama plans to spend $25 million on a border wall. Only one problem: It’s not for our border.

It was quietly announced in March that an official with the U.S. diplomatic mission in Tunisia would begin disbursing the first installments of a $24.9 million project to strengthen the border between Tunisia and the failed state of Libya, which has become a haven for radical Islamic terrorists following the bloody deposing of former strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

The project aims to strengthen the border between the two countries by installing state-of-the-art electronic surveillance systems at regular intervals along the nearly 125-mile stretch of barriers securing the frontier. – The Conservative Tribune

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Enjoy July…it only comes around once a year.

JREnsey

Welcome to the June 2016 blog!

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The Word for today

“God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plans” (Ephesians 1:9-11).

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Survey evokes concern

A recent survey about the beliefs regarding endtime events was conducted among Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and so-called Evangelicals. The survey discovered that 84% of Pentecostals embrace the Pre-Tribulation Rapture view. Only 75% of Baptists believe that, and only 1% of Lutherans. 60% of Lutherans, 48% of Methodists, and 49% of Presbyterians felt that the concept of the rapture is not to be taken literally.

But a disturbing fact that was reported was that “mainline Protestants have a more modernist theology. So, for instance, they would read the Bible, not as the inerrant word of God, but as a historical document, which has God’s word in it and a lot of very important truths, but that needs to be interpreted in every age by individuals of that time and that place.”

If they don’t believe the Word of God, then church is little more than a social club. That is why their membership is drying up and those in Evangelical and Pentecostal movements are still growing. The early church turned the world upside down; today the world is turning the church upside down.

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Transgender appointed by Obama to Faith Based Council

The Obama administration has appointed a transgender individual to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based Neighborhood Partnerships, selecting Barbara Satin for a post along with two representatives of minority faiths.

Satin, who was born a man but identifies as a woman, is an Air Force veteran, a member of the United Church of Christ and currently works with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, according to CBN News.

“Given the current political climate, I believe it’s important that a voice of faith representing the transgender and gender non-conforming community—as well as a person of my years, nearly 82—be present and heard in these vital conversations,” Satin said.

President Barack Obama announced the appointments of Satin along with Sikh leader Manjit Singh and Baha’i leader Naseem Kourosh to the faith council on May 12. The press release, which was published on the White House website, includes details about Satin’s past and present history of working with LGBTQ groups.

Pediatricians decry gender ideology pushed by liberals

The American College of Pediatricians recently issued a temporary position statement on so-called gender identity disorder, or gender dysphoria. A full statement will be issued this summer. The temporary statement is prefaced with the following: The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts—not ideology—determine reality.

To encourage a child to view himself as something he can never truly or fully be is child abuse!!

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Pastor’s affairs “not enough to send him to Hell”

Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian pastor who leads the charismatic Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations Church in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, has admitted to having affairs with parishioners. The confession came one month after he posted a video on his blog titled “Sexual Sin Is Not Enough to Take You to Hell.” Hmmmmmm…..

Several of those close to him have accused him of thwarting attempts to help or discipline. A mentor, Ulysses Tuff, has said: “I am not a professional psychiatrist, nor profess to be one, but you never addressed the sins you committed against those innocent women, many of which are married,” wrote Ulysses Tuff, founder and pastor at The Way, The Truth, and The Life Christian Center in Georgia, to Adelaja in a letter obtained by CT. He has been Adelaja’s mentor since 1995.

“If I had to use words to describe and give a very general perspective about you, I would choose such words as hallucination of grandeur, narcissistic, or sociopathic behavior,” Tuff continued.

“Yet, you said that according to 1 Cor. 2:2-10, everything you are going through is connected to your Apostleship,” he wrote. “Not Paul, nor any of the apostles in preparation for apostleship were found to have defiled 20, 30, or more women (this number of women was what you said on my first night meeting with you, you also said there could be more, you don’t remember). It is damaging to the integrity and laws of scriptural interpretation, how you have twisted the scripture to paint a picture of your sainthood….”

Adelaja and all other ministers who have had a lapse of morality have our prayers. He has decided to take a six-month sabbatical in Nigeria to let the matter cool down. What needs to cool down is…….

Someone observed that men have two basic motivations: hunger and hanky panky, and they can’t tell them apart. If you see a gleam in his eyes, make him a sandwich.

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Why do some verses in the Book of Acts read differently in the KJV?

Acts 16:7 – Virtually all contemporary versions say, “the Spirit of Jesus.” The KJV says, “the Spirit….” Why the difference? According to textual scholars and manuscript analysts, this rendering (“of Jesus”) appears in the major early MSS: p74 Aleph A B C2 D E 33 69 81 326 467 vg syrp,b copbo armmss, et al., but was omitted when the Byzantine text-type was in its early development, probably in the time of Athanasius (c. 298-373), who likely chose the short reading. Athanasius was aware that there were two MSS that contained different readings here. Chrysostom (c. 407), who had a definite impact on the Byzantine readings, also omitted “of Jesus.” Thus the vast majority of the Byzantine copies omitted the phrase. The KJV translators did not have the oldest manuscripts to consult but used the editions of the TR which collated only a handful of late Byz MSS. Therefore, following the Textus Receptus, the phrase “of Jesus” did not make it into the KJV.

Acts 8:37appears in the KJV but not in contemporary versions. Noted textual critic Dr. Bruce Metzger explains: “Verse 37 is a Western edition, not found in [early MSS such as] p45,74 a A B C 33 81 614 vg syrp,h copsa,bo, etc., but read, with many minor variations, by E, many minuscules, itgig,h etc. There is no reason why scribes should have omitted the material, if it had originally stood in the text. …The formula was doubtless used by the early church in baptismal ceremonies. …Its insertion into the text seems to have been due to the feeling that Philip could not have baptized the Ethiopian without securing a confession of faith. …Although the earliest known manuscript which contains the words dates from the sixth century (ms E, codex Bezae, which contains a number of inauthentic readings), the tradition of the Ethiopian’s confession of faith in Christ was current as early as the latter part of the second century for Irenaeus quotes part of it. Although the passage does not appear in the late medieval manuscripts on which Erasmus chiefly depended for his edition (ms 2), it stands in the margin of another (ms 4), from which he inserted it into his text because he ‘judged that it had been omitted by the carelessness of scribes.’” Neither the inclusion nor exclusion of this verse changes any doctrine in the Bible. Sure, it contains a doctrinal point (faith is necessary for baptism to be effectual) but many other verses address that issue. It is not included in most Bibles because someone disagreed with it and wanted it out, but because it does not have early manuscript support. It has all the signs of a gloss—wording of liturgy put in manuscript margins by scribes, then later pulled into the text as part of the scripture.

Acts 8:37 was not in Erasmus’ first edition of the Textus Receptus, but he was persuaded to include it in his second edition. Stephanus’ 1550 TR edition has it because it was based off of Erasmus’ second edition. Stephanus 1550 and Beza 1598 were the TR editions most used by the KJV translators.

How did parts of Acts 9:5,6 get into the KJV? The words “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him” are obviously not original here. No Greek manuscript has these words here. They were likely inserted because they were found there in the Catholic Latin Vulgate, being assimilated from Acts 26:14 and 22:10. Bruce Metzger comments: “The spurious passage came into the Textus Receptus when Erasmus translated it from the Latin Vulgate into Greek and inserted it in his first edition (1516) of his Greek New Testament.” Harmonization of certain passages by scribes, including Erasmus, is not uncommon. Nothing is lost from the biblical record since uncontested and well-supported parallel sources containing these words are elsewhere in Acts. Certain scribes and modern KJV advocates felt that the statements should be here because this is Luke’s original record of the occurrence. But are we authorized to move words and verses around just because we think they should be here or there? We are safest in following the Greek manuscripts.

Why does Acts 19:37 read “robbers of churches” in the KJV when there were no churches to rob at that time? Every known Greek manuscript, including the Textus Receptus, has hierosulous—“temple plunderers.” There were thousands of temples in the Middle East and Asia Minor at that time—but no churches. Christians were meeting in synagogues, in private homes, or congregating in public places outdoors. Perhaps “churches” sounded better to translators in Christian Europe in 1611 where there were now thousands of churches.

Why does Acts 3:13,26 say “Servant” in the contemporary version and “Son” in the KJV? Some strong KJV advocates say using “Servant” here amounts to a “demotion of Jesus” in newer versions. However, the Greek term used is Παῖδα (paida -servant), not ὑιὸν (huios – Son). In the Septuagint and in the KJV, Jesus is referred to in Isaiah 42:1 as the pais Kuriou—the “Lord’s Servant,” or “the Servant of the Lord.” The Hebrew clearly quotes God as saying: “Behold my servant…” (KJV). Messiah is also called God’s Servant in Isaiah 52:13 (KJV). They also complain about Acts 4:27 where Jesus is called “Servant” in modern versions (and the Greek Textus Receptus) as opposed to “child” in the KJV. The truth is that again the Greek term paida (TR–Stephanus 1550) is “servant.” The KJV just copied what the Latin Vulgate said here rather than translate the Greek. So why do the contemporary versions render the terms as “servant”? Because that is what the Bible writers actually penned by inspiration. Note: The same word is used in Matthew 12:18 of Jesus where the KJV also translates pais as “servant.” Is the KJV demoting Jesus by using “servant”?

Why is “Jesus” inserted in Acts 7:45, when the context clearly indicates that the one referred to is “Joshua”? “Jesus” (Ἰησοῦ) is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Joshua.” In recognition of the context the translators should have translated the Greek into the Hebrew name as it appears in the Old Testament. The context (vs. 44-46) shows without question that Joshua was meant. The person we know as Jesus did not lead the ancestors of the Jerusalem Jews into battle to conquer the inhabitants of Canaan. It was Joshua. Check the Interlinear Bibles. Virtually all scholars agree with the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges which states: “It is better here and in Hebrews 4:8 to let the Greek orthography give place to the form of the word used in the Old Testament.” French and German Bibles have Joshua. Advocates of the TR/KJV, in the attempt to maintain a perception of absolute flawless and perfect translation for that version, speculate that perhaps the translators used the name Jesus to convey a lesson about types and anti-types. Not many readers—or scholars—see the reasoning behind that speculation.

Please note: I am not on an anti-KJV crusade. If the whole church chooses to use the KJV, that is fine with me. I have no problem with that. But as long as misinformation is flowing across our fellowship about it and about other versions, creating division and confusion, the author’s circular arguments should be rebutted.

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But hasn’t God blessed the KJV for 400 years?

Someone asked, “Why use any other version since God has ‘blessed’ the KJV for over 400 years?” If length of service or popular use corroborates every word of a particular translation and signals God’s blessing, consider how God ‘blessed’ the Latin Vulgate, the primary Bible used by most professing Christians for over a thousand years. But it was revised significantly by Erasmus in 1516 who knew how corrupted it was. Was Erasmus wrong to do that? The translation of Erasmus’ Greek compilation by William Tyndale in 1526 was ‘blessed’ for eighty-five years before it was radically changed by the KJV translators in 1611. Were they in the wrong for interrupting its length of service? The Geneva Bible was “mightily used of God” by the Pilgrims and Puritans before the KJV was printed and was even more popular than the KJV for decades after 1611.

The point is—evaluation of a certain translation on the basis of length of popular use and what happened during that period is quite subjective. Every scrap of God’s Word on papyrus, parchment or paper from the first century until now has blessed and benefitted God’s people. So, yes, He has blessed the KJV but others as well.

When the KJV is established as the standard, all other translations are compared to it. If they don’t match up, they are wrong. Here’s the logic: The Bible is the Word of God; the Word of God is always right; the KJV is the Bible; the KJV is always right. If the KJV is the Bible, all others are not the Bible. If they read differently from the KJV, they are not the Word of God; if they are not the Word of God, they should be rejected. The words of God are pure and flawless; the KJV contains the exact words of God; therefore, the KJV is pure and flawless. The Word (law) of the Lord is perfect; the KJV is the Word of the Lord; therefore the KJV is perfect. The Word of the Lord is inspired; the KJV is the Word of the Lord; therefore the KJV is inspired.

It is this kind of circular logic and argumentation used by the KJV extremists that is fomenting division and confusion.

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For those who might be interested…

Here is a great site for historical texts and Bibles: Bibles-online.net. Check it out.

Need some inspiration? Enjoy these testimonies:

• “Today, I interviewed my grandmother for part of a research paper I’mworking on for my Psychology class. When I asked her to define success in her own words, she said, ‘Success is when you look back at your life and the memories make you smile.’”

• “Today, I asked my mentor—a very successful business man in his 70’s—what his top 3 tips are for success. He smiled and said,‘Read something no one else is reading, think something no one else is thinking, and dosomething no one else is doing.’”

• “Today at 7AM, I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, soI went into work. At 3 PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flattire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too.A man ina BMW pulled over, gave me a ride, we chatted, and then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.”

Fallen in the streets

The Portland Public Schools Board of Portland, Oregon, unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday to remove from classrooms any materials that “cast doubt” on whether climate change is occurring, according to the Portland Tribune. The resolution requires that textbooks and other classroom materials present climate change as fact. Facts do not matter…truth is only what they say it is.

Someone has said, “Truth is the new hate speech.” George Orwell, author of 1984, famously declared, “During times of universal deceit, the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

Isaiah prophesied of such a time: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”

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God’s plan for seniors

Most seniors never get enough exercise. In His wisdom God decreed that seniors become forgetful so they would have to search for their glasses, keys and other things, thus doing more walking.

And God looked down and saw that it was good.

Then God saw there was another need. In His wisdom He made seniors lose coordination so they would drop things requiring them to bend, reach and stretch.

And God looked down and saw that it was good.

Then God considered the function of bladders and decided seniors would have additional calls of nature requiring more trips to the bathroom, thus providing more exercise.

God looked down and saw that it was good.

So if you find as you age, you are getting up and down more, remember it’s God’s will. It is all in your best interest even though you mutter and complain under your breath.

One elder noticed these subtle facts:

Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.

Life is like a jar of jalapeno peppers. What you do today may become a burning issue tomorrow.

– Anonymous

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The wisdom of Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

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The best soul winning aid produced in the last 25 years.

Only $1.75 each up to 49 copies, 1.50 each from 50-99 copies, and only 1.25 for orders of 100 or more. Follow-up study Guide For Living is same price.

Special SALE

Apostolic Theological Forum Set of Five Books

The Apostolic Theological Forum was established in 2002 to provide a colloquy where papers on theological subjects coul be presented and discussed. A variety of papers dealing with doctrinal issues, church, government, prophecy and history have been presented each year inthe Forum. This is the first journal published by the Forum. Regular price for each book is $9.95. Sale price this month is $29.95. Go to advanceministries.org/store to see what topics are covered in each book and order there or call 936-537-0250 to order.

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Worth a 1000 words

Back off. I am not ready for marriage. This gown is just for show.

Some math tests are easier than others.

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The Last Shot

US immigration authorities’ (ICE) said on May 24 that the plan to open a new detention facility with a specialized unit for transgender people is being condemned by advocates who argue that the vulnerable population should not be detained. What could go wrong with those plans? There are approximately 267,000 undocumented [illegal] LGBT immigrants in the US, according to a March 2013 report from UCLA’s Williams Institute. It is unclear how many of those are transgender, and ICE would not disclose how many transgender people were currently in its custody.

JREnsey

We decided to publish a mid-month edition to focus on the cultural challenge that we are facing right now.

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The Word for today

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

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Whole Foods win lawsuit filed by gay pastor

A food store chain has been declared innocent of putting the word “F-G” on a cake ordered by a gay pastor in Austin, TX. He had claimed discrimination by the store. Information came out later that he was being pressed to pay off student loans of several thousand dollars. He allegedly concocted the story to extort money from the store. He has since confessed his lie and apologized to the store and the employee he wrongfully accused.

Mixed reaction on school mandate

Parents and teachers now have to concentrate on safety in school restrooms. Perhaps they will ultimately have to have police protection in each one to maintain order and decorum. I went through many years of school attendance and we never had to have security for those places. Sure, boys occasionally tried to drill holes in the locker room wall, which seemed like a good idea at the time to some of them. But what we are seeing today has no precedent.

A Houston area psychotherapist, who has a transgender child, says schools “should have plans in place to deal with bullying, to deal with any nonsense in the bathroom, to keep those places safe.” If we want no bullying there, no nonsense, and their safety assured, why not leave them as they have been for hundreds of years? Why spend tax dollars providing security for a situation that was created by nonsensical government edicts?

The president of the Parent Teacher Association in the Houston area says that forcing students to use a bathroom they do not identify with creates more problems than allowing everyone to use the bathroom they feel comfortable with. What planet….? Will we have to provide a sandbox restroom for those kids who self-identify as a cat? Where will this end? They teach children to adopt the attitude, ‘This is my friend. He’s a boy. He got the wrong body when he was born.” Some say, “Let’s normalize the issue.” Right. Let’s make straights abnormal. When God made man and woman, He said it is good. What does He think about this current situation that Obama has dreamed up? I believe God clearly expressed His feelings in Genesis 19.

Has no one in government read “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”?

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Let George say it

Princeton University McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Robert P. George, was called “this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker” by the NY Times. He has spoken out on the transgender/bathroom issue. Finally, a professor who makes sense—a rare bird, indeed. He tweeted:

“There are few superstitious beliefs as absurd as the idea that a woman can be trapped in a man’s body. …With Obama’s bathroom edict, the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of children is in graver peril than ever. Vouchers!”

I thought it was interesting that one of the responses he got read: “Superstitious beliefs? How about transubstantiation? Or the Trinity? All pretty whacked.” An insightful response.

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School Superintendent tosses Obama letter

“I don’t recognize President Obama. Nothing he does has any shred of leadership. When I get that letter I’ll throw it away,” Port Neches/Groves ISD Superintendent Dr. Rodney Cavness tells Beaumont’s (TX) KFDM News in response to a report the Obama administration was sending a letter to all school districts across the nation Friday, directing them to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

The report came down and suggests that if a school does not comply, they could lose federal funding. They could lose accreditation approval, and other complications passed on by the Department of Education. In other words, they could make life miserable for school administrators as well as students.

Cavness said, “This is one of those deals where it’s total overreach of the federal government. The left has made this a big deal. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. We can make accommodations for those kids. We don’t want them bullied or mistreated. I’m going to look at the wants and needs and values of 99.9 percent of our parents and kids. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and our President is wrong. I’m going to do what’s right.

“Our community has spoken loudly. I’ve got 2,500 little girls and young ladies in our school district. I’m going to protect them and the 2,500 boys in our district. What Obama is doing isn’t leadership. He’s not a leader. I’m going to provide leadership. I’ll fight for those kids until I don’t have a breath left in my body. When I get that letter I’ll throw it away. I’ve been advised by our attorneys there are common sense accommodations for these kids. I don’t recognize President Obama. I expect a President to be a strong, fearless leader. Nothing he does has any shred of leadership. It’s ridiculous. In the great state of Texas it’s sad we’re even having to talk about this foolishness. I know most Texans support what I think. Take a look around. Look at Detroit. Look at Chicago. Look at various places around the country that have had 20 or 30 or 40 years of zero leadership or left-leaning leadership. Look at their condition and their state. The government doesn’t fix anything. They only create problems. The only way to do that is personal responsibility. If people choose to live like that, you have the freedom to do what you want in this country. But at the same time, it’s getting forced down people’s throats and it’s not the way to do things. People might be more receptive if it wasn’t crammed down our throat every time we turn the television on.”

Source: KFDM INTERNET—Beaumont, TX

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We already have laws to cover misbehavior in restrooms

This is what bleeding heart liberals are trying to push parents to accept and believe that these laws will keep kids safe. There are laws against sexual assaults and certain acts performed in restrooms, even voyeurism. So we don’t need more laws about restroom use, such as the NC law just adopted, they say. What a stupid position to take.

Outdated laws that have been on the books for decades will dissolve in today’s courtrooms under the pressures coming from the Justice Department. I doubt that any man or woman would be prosecuted for standing around in a woman’s restroom (what perve would want to?) to observe the proceedings.

How do I know? Take the case that occurred the week of this writing (May 12). A man goes into a Target store ladies’ room and leans against the wall. Just stands there. When women complained to Target’s management that a “creepy” man was in the women’s room, the manager replied, “There’s nothing we can do about it.” (Reported on the Blaze)

Yes, there is, Mr. Manager! You can quit working for such a creepy store as Target! The other employees can turn in their red aprons too. I am sure there are other stores that would hire folks that have the moral courage to stand up against cultural tyranny. At least you could sleep at night knowing you did the right thing.

“Oh, but laws will keep anything from happening.” What imbecile believes that? Are there any laws on the books in Chicago by which murderers could be indicted? That stopped them, right? C’mon, America. It is time to return to common sense government.

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Girl choked by man in women’s restroom

On May 7, 2016—yes, this month—A West Town [Chicago suburb] man was ordered held without bail after being accused of choking an 8-year-old girl until she passed out inside a bathroom of a Jason’s Deli restaurant.

The girl went into the restaurant’s restroom. At some point, Reese M. Hartstirn, 33, came into the restroom, saw her and started choking the girl with his hands, causing her to become unconscious, according to a news release from the Chicago Police Department.

He then allegedly picked up the unconscious girl and carried her into a bathroom stall, closing the door, according to the release. Hartstirn also pushed the girl’s mother when she came into the stall to rescue her daughter, police said.

BUT… pro-trans rights people say that there are laws on the books to prosecute such people. So, little girls like this are “safe and protected.” Laws in musty books on an attorney’s shelf protect NOBODY and dissuade few. The “protection” we have had for hundreds of years—separate facilities, common sense laws, Christian morality—is being taken away. We have created a situation where the perves will be protected by the law rather than the victims.

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Doctor opens up about transgenders

What can we do?

First, we can pray. Ask God to give the American church the wisdom and understanding of what is happening to this country. Pray for our President, the Congress, government officials to have the will to retract these regulations that will ultimately force our citizens to choose between two extremes—mass disobedience or surrender to cultural tyranny.

Second, we can wield the power of the purse. We can empty the parking lots of Target stores and other businesses that are meekly following these restroom directives that put our children in jeopardy. Millions of men have warped their minds with pornography and pose a danger to others given the opportunity and the protection of the law.

Third, we can ask for God’s direction as to where we should draw the line in the sand that we will not cross, even under threat of legal action. Our commitment must be deep in order to withstand the coming attacks against the church.

Fourth, we can remove our children from public schools that are being forced to provide co-ed restrooms and locker rooms. PS curricula is warping their minds with cultural engineering. Put them in private schools or homeschool them.

Last, reject hate. Those who are perpetrating this confusion want to label any thought or action that appears to support traditional values as being motivated by “hate.” Not so. True Christians may feel hate coming back toward us, as a policy of intolerance is generated, but we must continue to love those who mistreat us. Not easy—granted. In the end, however, love conquers all. Hate hurts only the one who harbors it. Disagreement and disapproval, however, is not to be equated with hate.

It is not time yet to march through Target holding a Bible aloft and shouting at customers to leave as one mother of 12 has chosen to do. Such tactics now will yield little but criticism. We will know what to do when we enter the voting booths in November. Until then, shop somewhere that still uses the proper signs on the restroom doors. If they all disappear, shop online as much as possible. May God help us to elect someone to the office of President who wants to be the leader of ALL Americans, not just a smattering of special interest groups.

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Last shot:

If socialist professors really believed their own propaganda, wouldn’t they teach for free? – PH

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God help us to keep our heads when it seems all those around us are losing theirs.

JREnsey

Welcome to the MAY 2016 blog!

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The Word for today

“And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house. And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst” (Ezekiel 41:6,7 KJV).

“My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him” (Song of Solomon 5:4 KJV).

“So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall” (I Samuel 25:22 KJV).

I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 14:23 KJV).

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Restrooms are discriminatory?

Yes, praise God! Hundreds, perhaps thousands of common sense situations in human life are discriminatory—all for our own safety and well-being. After God made man and woman as male and female (Genesis 1:27), He backed off and took a look and said, “It is very good” (v. 31). Now our culture is declaring that it is bad.

Target stores have chosen their side in the restroom wars. They say, “Inclusivity is a core belief at Target. It’s something we celebrate. We stand for equality and equity, and strive to make our guests and team members feel accepted, respected and welcomed in our stores and workplaces every day. We believe that everyone—every team member, every guest, and every community—deserves to be protected from discrimination, and treated equally. Consistent with this belief, Target supports the federal Equality Act, which provides protections to LGBT individuals, and opposes action that enables discrimination.”

One website reported that at last count over 700,000 persons had signed up to boycott Target stores. Who would want their wife or daughter exposed to the potential danger such action invites. “But no one has been harmed by transgenders thus far,” they say, “so what is the problem?” There are certain national parks where no one has been attacked by bears or mountain lion, but they have signs up anyway that say, “Don’t feed the animals.” Preventive measures seem wiser than waiting to act until something tragic occurs. ‘

Now this: A candidate for sheriff of Denton County, TX made this clear statement recently: “This whole bathroom thing is craziness I have never seen,” he posted on Friday. “All I can say is this. If my little girl is in a public women’s restroom and a man, regardless of how he may identify goes into that bathroom. He will then identify as a John Doe until he wakes up in what ever hospital he may be taken to. Your identity does not trump my little girls safety.”

He added: “I identify as a over protective father that loves his kids and would do anything to protect them.”

Once word got out about Murphree’s post, those in the LGBTQ community and their supporters shot back at the candidate to make it appear that he was advocating violence for local transgender folks (both of ’em). What is next—the outlawing of separate dorm room assignments for men and women? The removal of all locks on single stall public restroom doors?

Tim Wildmon added this comment to the Target action: “If Target thinks men should be able to ‘self-identify’ as women and enter a women’s restroom, then why can’t I ‘self-identify’ as a Target employee and get a discount?”

I wonder if God has good insurance? It looks like He is going to be sued before this nonsense comes to an end. No one should (and none do that I know of) advocate violence toward anyone merely because of their gender. But gender has traditionally been determined biologically, not mentally. Hey, this is a pretty simple thing. Get a grip!

Learn or burn

Would you like to know more about Islam from a federal prosecutor who tried the case of the Blind Sheikh? You know, the Muslim cleric who inspired the first bombing of the World Trade Center. This is an article worth your time to read.

“Other sheep have I…”

“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

This verse seems to be applied in several ways in today’s Christian culture. Some want to excise it from its context and make it apply to Christianity in general, as though there are saved people in other religions. Some make a more narrow application to force it to mean that within Christianity there are many “folds” that belong to Jesus and believers shouldn’t be narrow minded to the point of thinking that only one belief system is acceptable or that only one church or group of people are saved.

These applications seem to provide some measure of comfort to those in other faiths or who have friends and relatives in other faiths. But are either of these views what Jesus had in mind?

Jesus had been speaking to the Pharisees about the sheep that would recognize the Shepherd’s voice (vv. 9:40-10:15). He spoke of the sheepfold that would envelop His true sheep who would hear and respond to His voice. He posited himself as the door of the sheepfold—corresponding to His declaration of being “the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).” No one gets into the Lord’s fold but by the saving ministry of Jesus Christ.

He then spoke prophetically that other sheep presently not in the Jewish fold would respond to His voice when those of His own would not—“them also I must bring.” He was speaking to the Jews who would not hear His voice and referring to the Gentiles who would. As Ellicott elaborates: “These scattered sheep shall hear His voice, for the conscience which knows the voice of God is the heritage of all men; they shall hear it, as the words seem to imply, while the sheep now in the fold refuse to follow it.”

Paul finally sees the truth of this prophetic word from the mouth of Jesus while ministering in Corinth. Frustrated at the reticence of the Jews to believe, he “shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles” (Acts 18:5-10). That was the right thing to do. The Gentile sheep, which Peter had already discovered, were more open to the gospel (Acts 10). Paul himself had tasted some positive results in Macedonia and Athens, noting that there was a spiritual hunger among them. The conference in Jerusalem chaired by James had called on the church at large to accept what God had promised to do among the Gentiles (Acts 15:12-21).

To stretch this verse to suggest more than that would be twisting it. To suggest that it could mean that people outside the body of Christ—another sheepfold—are also saved without the Apostolic gospel (John 3:5; Acts 2:38)—is outside the scope of the Scriptures. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

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The IRS cometh

Following is an excerpt from a recent article in the Washington Times that affects every church and pastor.

“The public has a right to know about any new IRS guidelines for investigating the practice of our basic First Amendment freedoms.” The Obama IRS first ignored an atheist organization’s request that churches show proof that they are in compliance, but “is now stonewalling in federal court,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. The IRS could not be reached for comment by press time.

In its 2014 lawsuit the atheist group demanded that the IRS enforce the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from making political endorsements for elected office. It authorizes the IRS to regulate sermons and other speech to ensure churches comply with the provisions of their designations.

Legal scholars have speculated that the tax-exempt status of churches and other religious groups may be vulnerable in light of the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state laws banning same-sex marriage.

During oral arguments, Associate Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. asked Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. whether religious entities that subscribe to the traditional view of marriage would be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status should the laws banning same-sex marriage be struck down.

Cursing was wicked;
Drugs were for illness;
And divorce was unthinkable.

The flag was honored;
America was beautiful;
And God was welcome!

We read the Bible in public;
Prayed in school;
And preached from house to house;
To be called an American was worth dying for;
To be called a Christian was worth living for;
To be called a traitor was a shame!

Preachers preached because they had a message;
And Christians rejoiced because they had the victory!
Preachers preached from the Bible;
Singers sang from the heart;
And sinners turned to the Lord to be saved!

A new birth meant a new life;
Salvation meant a changed life;
Following Christ led to eternal life.

Being a preacher meant you proclaimed the word of God;
Being a deacon meant you would serve the Lord;
Being a Christian meant you would live for Jesus;
And being a sinner meant someone was praying for you!

Laws were based on the Bible;
Families read the Bible;
And churches taught and lived the Bible.

Church was where you found Christians
On the Lord’s day, rather than in the garden,
On the creek bank, on the golf course,
Or being entertained somewhere else.
I wish the old paths were before us instead of behind us.

– Anonymous

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Truth in street clothes

Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers.

The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.

When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.

People are funny—they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and back of the church.

I have concluded…

…that holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who gets burned. –Buddha?

…that the most memorable people in life will be the friends who loved you even when you weren’t very lovable. – lovereels.com

…that as soon as we discover life on another planet, Washington will be wanting to send them money.

…that whatever has fallen apart in our culture, we had been duly warned by our president that it would happen.

…that some people are quietly standing by watching us dispense with our freedoms, our laws, and our rights, just waiting for they day when they themselves are sufficiently numerous to install their own laws.

…that the end of diversity is perversity. Let’s do the right thing but shut up about diversity. There are too many nutcases out there who want to push it to some extreme, unscriptural, and ungodly degree. Don’t believe it? Just look around.

…that James Madison (1788) was right regarding guns: “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

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Birds and bees at four?

A four-year-old student was kicked out of a Colorado preschool after her parents questioned the administration’s controversial curriculum that openly promotes homosexual behavior and transgenderism in the classroom.

Wanting the opportunity to opt her daughter out of the classroom discussions focusing on sexuality, same-sex relations and gender issues at Montview Community Preschool and Kindergarten (MCPK) in Denver, Colorado, R.B. Sinclair made it clear that she believes her four-year-old is too young to participate in sex education at school.

“I think at this age, they don’t know what bias is,” Sinclair told the Denver Post. “They could have kids from Mars and they would still play together.”

She maintained that it is her parental right to judge when, where and how her daughter is exposed to such sensitive issues. “It’s not that she isn’t exposed to diversity, because it is the world we live in, but how are they having these conversations?” Sinclair asked.

C’mon, Apostolic moms and dads! Our voices need to be heard where they count—before school boards and city councils and people who can help effect change.

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Whoever

The fight over restrooms continues. While in the recent past this has resulted in the addition of a third bathroom option (gender-neutral) or requiring people to allow anyone to use the bathroom of their choice, Cooper Union in New York has removed signs from bathrooms that designate them as male or female. Now, everyone can use the bathroom of their choice. Co-ed bathrooms. Ironically, the dorms are still gender segregated.

Bill Mea, president of the college, “When people see someone who they think doesn’t belong there [in their gendered bathroom], it can create stress for everyone. So we thought, let’s just take that away.” Right. Once again, let’s do away with the reality of biology so that we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. I could agree to a law that says someone who has undergone a sex-change operation should be able to use the bathroom of their “new sex,” but just allowing anyone to use whatever bathroom they want because of how they feel about their gender is a recipe for disaster. Why isn’t Bill Mea concerned about the feelings, well-being, and safety of the women in those bathrooms? Why isn’t he considering how they feel when a man enters the facilities they are using? Why are we ignoring the concerns and feelings of the majority to accommodate the feelings of a tiny minority of individuals who are confused about their gender? Such is liberalism. It’s about feelings, not thought.

BooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

Letters To Pastors and Other Saints

by Peter Connell

The pastors of seven churches of Asia, assemblies specifically named in the second and third chapters of Revelation, were selected as recipients of these “love letters” from Christ. Only one of them came out virtually unscathed. The others felt the Lord’s hot breath of correction. What did it all mean? How does it all relate to us?
Enter Peter Connell. He took up the challenge to dig into the background of each church and city to give us fresh insight into the relevance of these letters. I discovered information I had never read. Views that enhanced the parameters of their problems and what they were to do overcome them were laid out clearly. Letters to Pastors and Other Saints is an appeal to every leader and layman to live up to our first, high calling.

Reviews:

“Peter Connell has delivered a succinct, informative and insightful look into the letters to the seven churches of Asia. Ministers and lay members alike will glean much from this stirring and soul searching study.It has obviously been inspired by the Christ of the Candlesticks to help challenge and even awaken the church of today.It is a must read for anyone desiring to understand just how interested the Lord Jesus Christ is in the performance of His church assemblies and their overseers.” – J. A., Georgia

“This timely book brings clarity and fresh new insights into the letters written to the pastors and saints of the seven churches of Asia. No matter how serious the issues, we can overcome, if we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” – N. D., Kansas

AM Price $14.95 Order at advanceministries.org/store or call 936-537-0250.

The will of God

The will of God will never take you where the grace of God cannot keep you, where the arms of God cannot support you, where the riches of God cannot supply your needs, where the power of God cannot endow you.

The will of God will never take you where the Spirit of God cannot work through you, where the wisdom of God cannot teach you, where the army of God cannot protect you, where the hands of God cannot mold you.

The will of God will never take you where the love of God cannot enfold you, where the mercies of God cannot calm you, where the peace of God cannot allay your fears, where the authority of God cannot overrule you.

The will of God will never take you where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears, where the Word of God cannot feed you, where the miracles of God cannot reach you, where the omnipresence of God cannot find you.

– Rebekah Nolt

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and it!

That should keep you out of jail!

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The Last Shot

Carl Sandburg once went to sleep during a play he was attending. He was

there to critique the presentation for a young playwright. Awakened, he responded: “Sleep is an opinion.” Let’s see…how could that be applied to us preachers?

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May your May be your best May ever! Thanks for taking time to visit. Be blessed!

JREnsey

Welcome to the “no fooling” APRIL 2016 blog!

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The Word for today

“When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. 11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. 12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you” (I Corinthians 5:9-13 NLT).

Would the PC police call that judgmentalism?

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More on the “religion of peace”

We were not over the shock of the Brussels bombing when the Muslims wiped out more than 70 Christians in Pakistan and wounding hundreds more on Easter weekend. I don’t think we can stand much more “peace.”

The Belgium newspaper Derniere Heure reported recently that a guard at a nuclear plant was found dead after being shot several times and having his security credentials stolen. The paper called the murder an event “completely ignored” by the media.

According to the report, the guard was found dead in the bathroom of his home Thursday. The man’s stolen security credentials were deactivated soon after the discovery. Earlier, in a Washington Post story in 2012, two other employees from the plant had left for Syria to fight with ISIS. Should we be concerned?

From 2009 to 2012, a man named Ilyass Boughalab worked for contractor AIB-Vincotte and had security clearances to inspect welds in sensitive areas of the Doel 4 nuclear reactor. Then he left for Syria, was convicted in absentia for being part of a group called Sharia4Belgium and died fighting in Syria in 2014.

According a Washington Post report, Boughalab’s family said he was radicalized after he had security clearances, but in 2014 someone else committed an act of sabotage at the plant by opening a valve, draining lubricant from a turbine and causing it to burn out. The plant was never in danger but had to shut down for four months, and the damage cost between $100 million and $200 million. The motive for the sabotage remains a mystery. [Ah, yes, a definite mystery.]

Should we worry since Muslims belong to a religion of peace?

How secure are our nuclear power plants in this country? You really don’t want to know.

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Transgenderism of Children is Child Abuse, American College of Pediatrics Rules

The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts—not ideology—determine reality. Read the full story here:

Why does the ACP have to put out such rulings? Shouldn’t our legislators and public officials have enough common sense to know this? I believe most parents do, but they are being bullied and intimidated by the 90-day wonders fresh from the university where they received degrees in social engineering. Schools and colleges that spew this PC garbage should be defunded and any teacher advocating such nonsense fired. Parents, do you know what your children are being taught in the schools and colleges in your communities?

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“Who’s calling, please?”

Book reviews:God Calling by A. J. Russell

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

Some Evangelical churches—particularly ladies’ groups—have opted to use one or both of these books in their studies and devotions. Without sufficient discernment and background knowledge, some leaders have assumed that they are harmless books relating how other women are actually hearing from God. Who doesn’t want to hear from God? But are these really legitimate Christian devotional books or merely masquerading as such?

God Calling, edited by A. J. Russell, has been out since the 1930s. It is one of the best-selling devotional books for women still available today. A similar spin-off is Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.

These are not Bible-based devotionals. Just because they talk about prayer and quote some verses of Scripture does not make them worthy of Apostolic interest. They are more occultic and New Age than Christian. I invite our ladies and any others who are tempted to use them to consider the following reviews.

Group leaders who promote either of these books should know beforehand what they teach and encourage. The pastor should be invited to review books before a church group uses them. Popular books are promoted by publishers who stand to make megabucks from their sales. They select and publish one-sided reviews in that effort. It might be good to re-read II Timothy 3:13-17.

Tim Timmons, author of Chains of the Spirit, states: “The book is full of good thoughts, but careful examination will show that many of the concepts sound as though they originated from the angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14), rather than the Living Christ. This whole experience is inconsistent with God’s Word, which is our only reliable guide to examining this kind of activity.” (p. 30).

Edmund C. Gruss in The Discerner notes these statements attributed to Christ that do not borrow from Scripture:

– “I need you more than you need me” (p. 60).

– “I await the commands of my children” (p. 63).

– “Looking to Me all your thoughts are God-inspired. Act on them and you will be led on” (p. 104).

– “See Me in the dull, the uninteresting, the sinful, the critical, the miserable” (p. 111).

– “I do not delay My second coming. My followers delay it” (p. 177).

– “Remember this beautiful Earth on which you are was once only a thought of Divine Mind” (p. 201).

– “Wherever the soul is, I am. Man has rarely understood this. I am actually at the center of every man’s being, but, distracted with the things of the sense-life, he finds Me not” (p. 55).

– “Love is God. Give them love, and you give them God” (p. 72).

– “How often mortals rush to earthly friends who can serve them in so limited a way, when the friends who are freed from the limitations of humanity [i.e., the dead] can serve them so much better, understand better, protect better, plan better, and even plead better their cause with Me” (p. 145).

– “Yes! But remember the first hail must be that of the Magi in the Bethlehem stable” (p. 204).

“Christ” slips up on that last one. Matthew 2:9-11 indicates that the Magi arrived at Bethlehem a considerable time after Jesus was born. Note that verse 11 mentions their being at the “house.” The Magi never did visit Jesus at the stable, but the shepherds did (Luke 2:15-20).

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The ending of the Lord’s Prayer

People often ask, “Why is there a confusing difference in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew and the one in Luke, especially at the end?”

The two versions of the sample prayer are given in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. It is not surprising that Matthew has the long ending of the prayer—“for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”—rather than Luke. Matthew seems to be targeting the Jews in his Gospel, and they are known for a bent to add doxologies—ascriptions of praise to God, usually at liturgical endings—to prayers. Examples might be Numbers 6:25-27 and I Chronicles 29:10-13. However, the doxology is in neither of the Gospels in the earliest Greek manuscripts. Only one Greek manuscript before AD 700 has it—Codex Washingtonianus. The verse ends “from the evil [one]” in Aleph B D Z 0170 f1 205 547, many Latin translations, and numerous church Fathers.

Tracing the insertion and expansion of the doxology through the manuscripts is not difficult. As Bruce Metzger explains: “The ascription at the close of the Lord’s prayer occurs in several forms. In [manuscripts] K L W D Q P f13al it is the familiar triple strophic form [whereas others lack one part of it]…the old Latin manuscript k reads simply ‘for thine is the power for ever and ever.’ Some Greek manuscripts expand ‘for ever’ into for ever and ever,’ and most of them add ‘Amen.’ [Three] late minuscules (157 225 418 [MSS from 12th to 14th centuries] append it further with a Trinitarian ascription, ‘for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.’ The same expansion occurs also at the close of the Lord’s Prayer in the liturgy that is traditionally ascribed to St. John Chrysostom (347-407).” Perhaps some of the early Trinitarians wanted another reference for their doctrine when they added the Matthew 28:19-like suffix. The late manuscripts containing the doxology offer seven different variations, usually a sure sign of emendations and glosses.

Metzger further elucidates: “The absence of any ascription in early and important representatives of the Alexandrian (Aleph B), the Western (D and most of the Old Latin), and the pre-Caesarean (f1) types of text, as well as early patristic commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer ascription, usually in a threefold form, was composed (perhaps on the basis of I Chronicles 29:11-13) in order to adapt the Prayer for liturgical use in the early church.” Fortunately, those textual critics helping the KJV translators with the text could see that the Trinitarian tag was a gloss. They should have also noted that the addition of the entire doxology was a conflation to harmonize with early versions. The currently most-widespread English-language version of the Lord’s Prayer became popular in the reign of Elizabeth I of England (who fervently embraced it) around AD 1580.

Some form of the Lord’s Prayer doxology is found in a few of the ancient versions—the Syriac, Gothic, Armenian and Ethiopic—but it is not found in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts nor in the Latin Vulgate. This suggests that it had become a part of church liturgy then worked its way into Greek copies through scribal emendations and glosses. Textual critic Kurt Aland agrees: “The reason for the addition is quite clear. Whether the Lord’s Prayer is used in public worship or for private devotions, the text needs an ending.” Some suggest that Elizabeth I wanted it in the Bible because it would set the Protestant Bibles apart from the Catholic versions, none of which ever included the doxology.

It is curious that the doxology was absent in Tyndale’s original 1526 version of the New Testament, yet it was in his last edition in 1534. He had made more than 5000 changes in the 1534 edition. KJV apologists praise the late fourth or early fifth century Codex Washingtonianus for having the doxology, but it also has other spurious long endings and subscriptions, and does not have other passages that the TR/KJV have, such as the story of the woman taken in adultery, or the angel troubling the waters in John 5:4. It also has extra material at Mark 16:14 about Jesus, Satan, and restoration. Again, this is why the science of textual criticism is vitally important.

Personally, I like the Matthean doxology. But I am not sure that is sufficient reason to justify its inclusion in the Scriptures.

[Citations available on request.]

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BooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

Readers are asking for more information about the Bible. Let me recommend some books that I have found to be helpful to anyone wanting to know how we got the Bible, why we can trust it, and how to think about ancient manuscripts and textual criticism. Here are some I have and recommend.

The Text of the New Testament: From Manuscript to Modern Edition

by J. Harold Greenlee, professor of New Testament Greek, former missionary, and international translation consultant for Wycliffe Bible Translators.

This inexpensive little book (only 130 pages) is filled with basic, easy to understand information about the Bible. It traces the history of the copying and transmission of the New Testament text down to the present day and introduces the basic principles of textual criticism.

Buy this excellent book for as little as $4.07 new from Bargainbookstores, or other sellers under “More buying choices” at Amazon.com.

The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible

by Paul D. Wegner, professor of the Old Testament at Phoenix Seminary in Arizona.

This larger book, over 460 pages, is more comprehensive than the one mentioned above, but still easy to read with objective information every minister can use. Contains many charts, photos and lists that provide excellent information about the Word of God we all love and live by.

You can buy this book for $33.78 new from Amazon or from their “More buying choices” section for as little as 19.96. A terrific investment!

The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (Second edition)

by Bruce M. Metzger.

The late author was one of the most notable textual experts in the field, respected by virtually all of his peers. Apostolic pastor Marvin Treece studied under him and recommended his work highly.

As professor of New Testament at Princeton, Metzger spent virtually all of his adult life in the study of biblical manuscripts. He published many books on the topic and was known as an unprejudiced textual analyst who could be relied upon to provide objective information on the history and text of the Bible. He includes a list of the papyri and many details about specific manuscripts. Has 284 pages.

You can buy a hardcover at Amazon for $26.44 or 23.84 under “More buying choices.”

A General Introduction to the Bible: From Ancient Tablets to Modern Translations

by David Ewert, professor emeritus and retired president of Mennonite Brethren Bible College.

A good book for entry level readers wanting to know more about biblical texts, their history, and the canonization of the Bible. The author describes the text—it materials, the translations, and the key men involved. Contains maps, charts, and photos of some ancient manuscripts and pages of various Bibles. 284 pages.

Buy it for as little as .01 cent (you read it right) at “More buying choices” at Amazon. All prices listed were as of March 29, 2016.

Books on Closeout sale

Historical Drift: Must My Church Die?

by Arnold L. Cook

Boats drift. Cultures drift. But so do churches—both local assemblies and entire denominations. If you are concerned about slippage, you are not alone. Pastors and leaders at every level are seeing the Christian gradually, no, rapidly moving toward compromise and lethargy. The graying of the church in America is a result of putting soulwinning on the back burner. The author makes a gallant appeal to stop the drift and return to the solid foundation on which the church was built. He offers solutions you can use. The money and time spent on this book is well worth it. For several years this has been required reading for ministerial applicants in the Texas District. 346 pages. Retail price is 19.99 but we have only four of these left. We will let them go at only $14.99. First come, first served. Call for your copy today! 936-537-0250.

The Unbound Scriptures

by Rick Norris

This book is for serious readers only. Based on years of research and study, the author has provided us with more usable information about the Bible—its history, its manuscripts, and it soundness—than we’ve ever seen between the covers of one book. Crammed into 544 pages is an objective look at issues about the Scriptures facing our churches today. You don’t have to be a Greek scholar to glean personal help and inspiration from this book. You will be equipped to “always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (I Peter 3:15). Only $15.99. Very expensive from Amazon. We have six remaining. Call for your copy today! 936-537-0250.

Into His Marvelous Light Bible Study

No other one-hour Bible study has enjoyed the consistent results of IHML over the years. Often copied but never duplicated. It is attractive, well written, and doctrinally sound. It will convince any open-minded person (and some whose minds are not so open) that the new birth is absolutely essential and that Acts 2:38 constitutes that experience. It’s possible that more souls have been won with this Bible Study than with any other single teaching tool in the past 20 years. Discover how easy it is to share the plan of salvation with others. Available in both English, Spanish and Italian. English is available in both KJV and NIV84.

AM Price 1-49 $1.75 each; 50-99 $1.50 each; 100 or more $1.25 each

Guide For Living

A follow-up study for the new believers. This little booklet can be given to the new members to go through alone and then come back to you with any questions they may have. It can also be taught as a text in a class. It covers the new birth—what has happened to them experientially, and goes through what their responsibilities as believers are now.

“I want Hillary for president…but Bernie and the FBI won’t let her have it!”

“I’m an undercover agent. Those terrorists won’t know I’m spying on them until it’s too late.”

“I can’t wait until I’m fifteen. I’ll be checking out the girls at youth camp in Lufkin.”

“Yeah, but you will have to beat my time, slowpoke!”

“I don’t have time for the girls; my Master’s thesis is almost due!”

“I want one of those cushy jobs up at Headquarters in St. Louis. Maybe Michael E’s position. I hear he’s getting too old. I may have a shot at youth prez!”

“I was born in Louisiana but I got to Texas just as soon as I could.”

“I have a few dates still open if any pastors want a children’s revival.”

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The Last Shot

“God calls for and blesses the type of courage that only a righteous man can possess. A righteous man will avoid both wrong extremes of foolhardiness and cowardice. A combination of inner confidence and balanced caution is found in such a man. Finding the power of God to walk uprightly and humbly at the same time—that’s courage!” – E. L. Holley, in The Best of E. L. Holley

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Don’t be an April fool…

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1 ESV).

JREnsey

Welcome to the March 2016 blog! I can only hope that March features weather as nice as February has been in Texas—sunny, balmy, flowering trees blooming. If only the p0litical climate was as nice as the weather!

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The Word for today

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:42-47 KJV).

What fellowship! What an example!

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Think about it

Let us not seek the Republican answer, or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. – John F. Kennedy

Men divide horizontally—high class, middle class, and low class, but God divides perpendicularly—right or wrong, sheep or goats, heaven or hell, saved or lost, did or didn’t! – Johnny James

“I feel like I did when I was 20.” You forgot what 20 felt like. – Johnny James

Someone tried to encourage Hillary after her poor showing in the early primaries by reminding her that Nelson Mandela was not elected President until he had served 27 years in prison.

It is said that Jesus fulfilled at least 48 Old Testament prophecies. What are the probabilities of that happening? Cover the state of Texas with 100 million billion silver dollars and the pile would be two feet high. Mark one of the silver dollars and toss it into the pile. Blindfold a friend and give him one chance to pick up the marked silver dollar. The odds of your friend selecting the one marked silver dollar are the same as one person fulﬁlling only eight of the numerous prophecies. Mathematicians calculate the probability of fulﬁlling forty-eight prophecies as the number one followed by 157 zeros. – Everything Bible Book

In the ancient world, no one read to himself; this is a modern phenomenon. People listened as small children, and then they read out loud until they learned to “read in their heads.” Every written document in the ancient world was read out loud—even a personal letter from a wife to a husband. The biblical books were no different. Rhetoric, the art of persuasive speaking, was one of the most important and valued areas of learning. – Everything Bible Book

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How did the Roman Catholic Church begin?

I am sometimes asked about the origin of certain churches and denominations, particularly the Roman Catholic Church. That church has had a prominent role in Christianity for nearly 1700 years. Pope Francis seems to be bent on it continuing to have a leading role. I thought about writing on this but I noted that someone else had done so with some excellent research, so I will point you that are interested to that site (below).

We are told that the word “Catholic” was first coined by Ignatius of Antioch in c. AD 107. Polycarp picked it up in AD 155 with the meaning of “the whole church throughout the world.” It was again used in the Nicean documents in 325. An imperial decree in 388 was included in the Codex Justinianus that believers be called “Catholic Christians.” Since Rome was the seat of the Empire, with the conversion of Constantine the church leaders located there became prominent. The Bishop of Rome would ultimately become the pope and the term “Roman” was added to “Catholic” in common usage—perhaps to emphasize where its “seat” was—thus the Roman Catholic Church. After the Great Schism of 1054, “Roman” identified it as separate from the Eastern Orthodox Church. So it appears that Roman Catholicism, along with its name, evolved rather than “began.” The following article contains some very interesting information.

Death of the Trinity

The recent spate of articles and books attempting to prop up the multi-person theory of God underscores the fact that the Trinity is dying. The authors know it. Efforts are underway to shore it up by restating the theory in a post-modern theological hermeneutic. Within major denominations there is a sense of staleness and a lack of vitality about the doctrine. The miasma of death is upon it.

Why, after 1600 years of propagation and enforcement by the most powerful and influential entity on earth, would it come to this? Let me count the ways.

It is unintelligible.

Dr. Charles Ryrie affirms that theology must be intelligible: “The word ‘theology,’ from ‘theos’ meaning God, and ‘logos’ meaning rational expression, means the rational interpretation of religious faith. Christian theology thus means the rational interpretation of the Christian faith. Theology is intelligible. It can be comprehended by the human mind in an orderly, rational manner.” Agreed.

To explain the concept of a co-existent, co-eternal Father and Son is not possible. Eternal sonship is incomprehensible. Not that Christians are incapable of grasping the miraculous, but Trinitarianism goes beyond the miraculous to incredulity. Three hundred years after Christ at the Council of Nicea, some of Christianity’s most astute minds were already challenging the rising theory. When the dust settled and a report was published, it read: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ , the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousion) with the Father; by whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth]; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost.” That is the abrupt end of the description of the Trinity.

“And in the Holy Ghost.” They were comfortable with the Father and Son concept, since those terms were in Scripture, but they didn’t know what to make of the Holy Ghost. Who was He/It? Another person in the God family? A spiritual force? The action arm of the Godhead? In other words, they were still trying to figure out just where the Holy Spirit fits in the Deity. Fifty-six years later, at Constantinople in AD 381, they hammered out this statement: “And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

So 350 years after Christ, theologians now proclaimed there was a three-person God. The hypothesis: The Eternal Three were not revealed in the Old Testament but were hinted at in the New. For humanity’s redemption, the First Person of the Trinity assigned the Second Person, His eternal Son, to manifest Himself in the flesh to die for humanity’s sins. Afterward, the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, who is said to “proceed” from the Father and the Son, is sent into the lives of believers. Who can explain a co-equal, co-eternal God, comprised of a Father and a Son, joined by another Spirit who is also God but proceeds from those two, yet none existed before the other? Little wonder that Christians are asked to accept it by faith—likely meaning faith in the institution which developed it—without understanding it.

The concept of an eternal family of Gods is unintelligible.

It was concocted by men, not introduced in Scripture.

The Word has life and power (Hebrews 4:12). If the doctrine had been clearly stated in the Scriptures, it would not be on its last legs. But it was not. Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament presents a tripartite being as God. God would have surely shared His identity with Moses or Abraham, or perhaps David or Isaiah. If not, He would have revealed the Godhead to John or Peter or Paul. None of them seem to know of a triune deity. As the Christological doctrines began to be debated in the second, third and fourth centuries, apologists and writers of the times tried to put the Godhead in terms not found in Scripture. The Christian faith began to be awash with philosophies and pagan ideas that were prominent in that era.

As Union Theological Seminary professor Dr. Cyril C. Richardson, a confessed Trinitarian with a touch of doubt, observed: “I cannot but think that the doctrine of the Trinity, far from being established, is open to serious criticism…. [to continue reading this article CLICK HERE]

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Our Bible

Here are two very interesting articles concerning Bible translation and transmission by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, Director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts in Dallas. They are worth your time to read.

Five More Myths about Bible Translations and the Transmission of the Text

BooksBooksBooksBooksBooks

By J. R. Ensey

These two recent publications contain Bible lessons that deal with issues facing Christians today. In Life Is Too Short, the topics of anger, bringing excess baggage into the Christian journey, unwarranted guilt, doubt, apathy, spiritual deception, drugs, depression, poor choices, and sins of the spirit. Relevant, timely and down to earth. Life is just too short to live with these negatives.

In People in Proverbs nineteen people mentioned in the Book of Proverbs are placed under the microscope. These include The Man of Understanding, The Generous Man, The Fantasy Chasing Man, The Powerful Man, The Conceited Man, The Virtuous Woman, The Contentious Woman, The Indiscreet Woman, The Disciplined Man, The Prudent Man, The Deceitful Man, The Happy Man, The Proud Man, The Safe Man, The Stupid Man, The Lazy Man, The Offended Man, and The Risen Man. Filled with truth in street clothes, those who teach will find practical insights and illustrations to make your lesson come alive.

Price each: $12.95

Order online at advanceministries.org, or for a special price when ordering both of these books, call 936-537-0250.

Order Into His Marvelous Light Bible studies from US!

Only $1.75 each up to 49 copies, 1.50 each from 50-99 copies, and only 1.25 for orders of 100 or more. Follow-up study Guide For Living is same price.